A major concern for people living with HIV in the UK and the organisations that support them is the number of articles in the media that sensationalise and stigmatise HIV and unfairly represent individuals living with the virus.
Inaccurate or stigmatising media coverage increases misconceptions about HIV and can fuel discrimination against HIV-positive people.
Our work advising the media and challenging inaccurate reporting has helped to improve media reporting on HIV, but inaccurate and stigmatising articles spreading myths about the condition still occur.
Portrayal of HIV in the media
There are very few public figures who are open about their HIV status, and currently no established characters living with HIV in mainstream soaps or television dramas. We are calling for proactive initiatives to portray realistic HIV stories in the media, with the BBC and Channel 4 taking the lead as part of their statutory duty to promote disability equality.
As well as in the media, we would like to see greater, and supportive, visibility for people living with HIV both in cultural representation and public life.
NAT recently made a submission to the Leveson Inquiry, which is examining the culture, practices and ethics of the media, and made the case for the need to tackle the frequent inaccuracies still written about HIV in the press and the use of stigmatising and prejudicial language. You can read NAT's submission to the Leveson Inquiry here.
NAT has also made a submission to the Editors’ Code of Practice Committee, which writes and revises the voluntary code of standards overseen by the Press Complaints Commission. The code goes through an annual review and NAT has outlined its thoughts on Clause 12, which deals with discrimination within media reporting. You can read NAT's submission on the Editor's Code here.
Guidelines on Reporting HIV
NAT and the National Union of Journalists have jointly produced Guidelines on Reporting HIV to help journalists make sure that the articles that they write are not misleading and do not encourage negative perceptions about HIV.
You can read what NAT is saying to editors and journalists to improve reporting on HIV here.
Press Gang
Press Gang is an online group of people living with HIV who are interested in challenging stigmatising coverage in the media and making their voices heard. We keep Press Gang members informed of any stigmatising or inaccurate coverage and give them advice on how to challenge it.
Every day we scan many newspapers online and check other media for mentions of HIV and AIDS. Any articles that are identified as stigmatising or inaccurate are sent to Press Gang members via email as a 'stigma alert'.
Members are then encouraged to write a letter to the editor or add a comment online pointing out why this article is stigmatising or inaccurate and informing readers about the realities of living with HIVin the UK.
If you're living with HIV and are interested in challenging stigma in the media then you can find out more about find out more about joining 'Press Gang' here.
What's in the news?
NAT scans the media in the UK and worldwide daily for stories relating to HIV and produces a summary of the main stories of the week, with online links to the original article. You can read the latest news here.
Where we identify inaccurate reporting of HIV, we always challenge this.