Media fall for Health Ministry’s spin
This week the South African media – sadly – failed to see through government spin on a speech made by TAC Deputy Chairperson Nkhensani Mavasa to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS).
The spin, which I’ll come to, is the latest tactic in a battle between the Treatment Action Campaign and the government over the UNGASS meeting and the representation of how South Africa is faring in its fight against HIV/AIDS.
Initially, the TAC’s leaders lambasted the government for not consulting them on the progress report to be presented to UNGASS. They demanded that the TAC be included in the delegation attending the sessions. When the government finally agreed, the TAC rejected the offer because the AIDS Law Project (ALP) – which the TAC had also insisted attend was not invited – was not asked to join the delegation.
Mavasa and Vuyiseka Dubula of the ALP subsequently went to the sessions as delegates of the International Women’s Health Coalition; Mavasa to make a keynote address to the General Assembly. This turn of events was neatly recorded in a Cape Times article by Andy Shlensky on May 15.
The government must have been shaking in its boots in New York, given the circumstances leading up to Mavasa’s presence there. So I thought it a pleasant surprise when the Ministry of Health commended Mavasa’s speech, saying she “highlighted the challenges of poverty and the work being done in South Africa to make HIV treatment available”.
The Citizen, for example, ran a Sapa story reporting health spokesperson Sibani Mngadi on June 1 as saying: “She [Mavasa] acknowledged that efforts have been made in her home town in Limpopo, as well as in other parts of South Africa to make the HIV/Aids prevention, care and treatment programme available.”
Imagine my shock when coming across Mavasa’s speech and I find nearly absolutely nothing to suggest that she is proud of the effort South Africa is making. Instead, being the first HIV-positive person to address UNGASS, she delivers a compelling speech on the hopelessness of the HIV/AIDS situation in South Africa.
“None of the 900 people who will die in my country deserve to die today. What you decide here will determine whether they can have this hope,” she said.
She pleads with the leaders present to “protect and promote the human rights of all people”. In fact her speech echoes TAC leader Zackie Achmat’s ongoing criticism of the government’s efforts to fight HIV/AIDS.
The Mail&Guardian Online – and probably several other publications – also fell for Sapa’s poor reporting, running a story which said Mavasa’s speech was in contrast with Achmat’s feelings.
Most distressing however, is not the government’s blatant misconstruction of Mavasa’s speech, it is the media’s willingness to run with the story without double-checking the facts. Evidently HIV/AIDS is far from being fairly represented in the media although this furore has seen it catapulting to the headlines.
Also damaging to the perception of fair reporting of HIV/AIDS-related issues in the media is the way The Citizen misled people by its headline on Thursday. Running bold are the words; “Manto Aids Blow”. I thought something drastic had happened, like Manto had suddenly decided to stop the ARV-rollout.
The story is actually about a very misled group of people, the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco), slamming the use of anti-retroviral treatment. Sanco members, known supporters of the vitamins-obsessed Rath Health Foundation, criticised the ARV roll-out here at home, saying the government had been coerced into it. So the headline is blatantly sensationalist. The TAC treated Sanco’s statement with the contempt it deserves. – Akhona Cira