ABU Creates New Prize for HIV/AIDS Programming

KUALA KUMPUR, June 18: The
Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) has launched a new award to honor
reporting on HIV/AIDS in the Asia-Pacific region.

The ABU Prize for HIV/AIDS
Programs is open to all ABU member organizations. Entrants may submit up to two
entries, which must have been first broadcast after September 2007. Programs
that have won a prize in any other international competition are also eligible.
The deadline for submissions is September 15, with judging of the entries to
take place in October by an independent panel appointed by the ABU. The
recipient of the award will win a $2,500 cash prize and will be flown to Bali,
Indonesia, to attend the gala award ceremony on November 24. The ceremony will
be held in conjunction with the 45th ABU General Assembly.

The new award is sponsored
by the Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI), an initiative originally conceived
by UNAIDS and the Kaiser Family Foundation. GMAI’s support to the award forms
part of its effort to boost and sustain media coverage of the HIV/AIDS
epidemic, to improve the breadth of HIV/AIDS reporting and to increase access
by journalists worldwide to the most current information on HIV/AIDS.

Established in 1964, the
ABU Prizes recognize excellence across a variety of television and radio programming
genres.

“The inaugural ABU Prize
for HIV/AIDS Programs recognizes the efforts of broadcasters in creating
programs of a high standard that educate the public about HIV/AIDS, while at
the same time help reduce the stigma facing those already living with the
disease,” said Francyne Harrigan, the development projects manager at the ABU.

She continued: “The
competition is an integral part of ABU’s commitment of galvanizing media’s
power in Asia Pacific to help reduce the AIDS epidemic. Through this initiative,
we hope to increase the number of media companies actively developing or airing
HIV/AIDS-related programming.”

—By Irene Lew