Start the Press: How African Communities in the UK Can Work With the Media to Confront HIV Stigma

According to this 18-page report, African migrants in the United Kingdom (UK) are among the most vulnerable to HIV infection, accounting for the greatest number of new diagnoses in recent years. Being HIV-positive can intensify experiences of stigma and marginalisation apparent in inadequate living conditions, limited employment opportunities, and lack of visibility in policy decisions. The report states that stigmatising media coverage of African migrants can exacerbate the feelings of isolation and frequently prevents people from coming forward to access health services. The report argues that by speaking out, people living with HIV and leaders in African communities can raise awareness of the discrimination they experience. HIV advocates can get to know the media and work with journalists to tell their stories on their own terms, spotlighting inaccurate and misleading coverage, and beginning to confront the stigma. Produced as part of the Changing Perspectives campaign, coordinated by the African HIV Policy Network with Panos London and the Thomson Foundation, the report is based on content analysis of select UK national and ethnic press, and community engagement meetings with journalists and members of African communities.

The report states that for countries like the UK, where overall HIV prevalence is low and concentrated within specific groups, media coverage can spotlight under-reported issues, interrogate underlying causes of vulnerability (such as poverty, gender, and power relations), and raise informed public debate. Where this occurs, the media can effectively stimulate discussion about stigmatised and stigmatising issues, contribute to challenging social inequalities, and break the vicious cycle. However, inaccurate media coverage can inflame and reinforce stigma and discrimination by evoking scandal, continuing to silence the perspectives of those most affected by HIV, or ignoring questions about power, marginalisation, and vulnerability.

The key findings of the research included the following:

• The UK press tends to present HIV as a disease in Africa. More than half of all articles in the national and ethnic press focused on HIV in countries outside the UK, mainly Africa.
• People who are most affected by HIV are rarely interviewed in articles. The main sources of information are government spokespeople, doctors, or civil society organisations. The views and voices of African migrants living with HIV were largely absent.
• There is relatively little coverage of HIV and migration - approximately 6 per cent of the total coverage analysed (18 articles in the national press and 15 in the ethnic papers). Of this coverage, the tabloid newspapers (Sun and Daily Mail) contained the most stigmatising language, according to the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) guidelines.
• Coverage of HIV-related tuberculosis (TB) was low in both the ethnic and national press, with two articles in each, which accounted for 2.7 per cent in the former and 0.5 per cent in the latter. Even though HIV-TB co-infection is one of the most common AIDS-related illnesses among migrants in the UK, there was no coverage of the combined issues of TB, HIV, and migration.
• Access to treatment and health services was the primary focus of HIV coverage in the ethnic press, rather than transmission or prevention.

The report proposes that people living with HIV and their advocates can engage the media better and build relationships to encourage responsive and responsible journalism. At the community engagement meetings, journalists offered the following suggestions for people living with HIV and their advocates, to help them work more effectively with journalists to enhance media coverage of HIV in the UK:

• Build relationships with journalists to give them an added interest in checking the accuracy and language of their stories. By building trust, it is easier to ensure that the issues and interviews are accurately represented.
• Complaints about a specific article should be directed in writing to the editor of the journalist concerned. Complaints about the accuracy of an article should be directed to the Press Complaints Commission.
• Journalists always want a human angle for their stories. Although it takes courage to speak out, journalists recognise that HIV advocates have quotes, case studies, and the power to generate a story.