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New Award for
HIV/AIDS Journalism in Africa
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in collaboration with CNN
International has announced a new award recognizing excellence in HIV/AIDS
journalism in Africa.
The Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Journalism will be
presented as part of the prestigious CNN/MultiChoice African Journalist
Awards to recognize reporting on HIV/AIDS in Africa that illuminates the
broad impact of the epidemic on individuals, communities and nations, and
the resilience of the African response to the epidemic.
In addition to the award, Kaiser will organize a special HIV/AIDS briefing
for more than 50 top journalists expected to attend the award ceremony,
scheduled July this year in Maputo, Mozambique. The briefing will feature
international and African experts on HIV/AIDS and prominent African
leaders who will discuss the many ways that HIV/AIDS affects communities
throughout Africa.
The journalists will also take part in a site visit where they will
observe firsthand how HIV/AIDS is affecting urban and rural populations,
the efforts to combat the epidemic and community-level responses.
Mr. Drew Altman, Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO, said:
"Journalists are uniquely positioned to play a central role in informing
the public and policymakers about critical public health issues such as
HIV/AIDS. Through this award, it is our hope to recognize great work, but
more importantly to motivate more in-depth reporting on HIV/AIDS and the
many ways it affects people, businesses, and governments, and the response
to the epidemic."
The CNN/MultiChoice African Journalist Awards were established in 1995 and
recognize excellence in a variety of reporting topics. A winner from each
of the categories will be selected, and an overall winner will be chosen
from the 15 category winners. The annual competition is overseen by a
distinguished panel of judges.
The competition is open to African journalists working on the continent
for an African-owned media organization who broadcast or published their
entry between January and December 2005.
The deadline for receipt of entries is March 7, 2006.
Entry forms are available at:
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/africanawards/entry.html
Chris Cramer, Managing Director of CNN International, said: "We welcome
the addition of a new category which addresses such an important issue for
Africa and the world as a whole. The HIV/AIDS journalism award is in
keeping with the ongoing evolution of the Competition to fully reflect the
concerns of Africa and her journalists."
The new Kaiser award is part of the Kaiser Family Foundation's global
effort to increase and sustain media coverage of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, to
improve the breadth and substantiveness of HIV/AIDS reporting, and to
increase access by journalists worldwide to the most current information
on HIV/AIDS.
The Kaiser Family Foundation is a U.S.-based, non-profit, private
operating foundation dedicated to providing information and analysis to
policymakers, the media, the healthcare community and the general public.
Since 1993, Kaiser has operated the Kaiser Media Fellowships and
Internship Program in which hundreds of journalists have participated in
seminars, briefings, and site visits to gain in-depth, firsthand knowledge
about major health issues in the U.S. and internationally.
In recent years, Kaiser has taken this approach to Africa, India, and
Russia working with journalists through briefings, in-country site visits,
and trips to such events as the International AIDS Conference to
facilitate reporting on HIV/AIDS.
Kaiser also operates
http://www.GlobalHealthReporting.org (with major support from the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation) and
http:///www.GlobalHealthFacts.org to make the latest news and
information about HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria easily accessible.
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