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Television producers throughout the world are looking to create interesting and inspiring programmes on HIV and AIDS, which require basic journalistic skills, production talent and knowledge about the epidemic. Telling the HIV story can be done with respect, dignity and sensitivity. It needs exposure to priority issues so that a wide range of stakeholders including individuals, households, communities and policymakers can be involved in preventive action.

Access to locally relevant scientific data and information and editorial independence are prerequisites for credible media reports and programmes about the pandemic. In the late 1990s, sponsored public service announcements, mass media campaigns and unimaginative reports about workshops, seminars and conferences dominated media reports in many countries. They did little to bridge the gap between scientific fact and taboo-driven perceptions about HIV and AIDS.

Recognizing the need to accelerate non-formal preventive education, UNESCO’s Network of Young TV Producer’s on HIV and AIDS facilitates workshops through which 200 TV producers have been able to create more than 100 TV items for free transmission in more than 70 countries. With the help of qualified experts on HIV and AIDS, participants obtain multi-disciplinary knowledge about the epidemic and learn about innovative TV formats.

In addition to access to scientific information on HIV and AIDS, TV producers need skills to use new information technologies; talent to hold the interest of the public audience and inspiration to report sensitively and creatively about HIV and AIDS. The  effort  is  huge  but  it  pays  off  when  air-time  is  allocated  by broadcasters to transmit quality, prime-time programmes.

This handbook is intended for TV producers who wish to make that extra effort; it aims to enlarge possibilities for accurate and credible TV reports on HIV and AIDS.