CNN International and the Kaiser Family Foundation Name First Recipients of Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Journalism in Africa
Khopotso Bodibe and Anso Thom from South Africa-based Health-e News Service Were Selected from more than 135 Applicants from 29 African Countries
Menlo Park, CA -- The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in collaboration with CNN International and MultiChoice today named South African journalists Khopotso Bodibe and Anso Thom recipients of the first Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Journalism in Africa for their investigative reporting on HIV/AIDS. The award was presented by Penny Duckham, the Executive Director of Kaiser’s Media Fellowships and Internships Program, as part of the prestigious 2006 CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Awards this year taking place in Maputo, Mozambique.
Writing for the Cape Town-based news agency Health-e, Khopotso Bodibe and Anso Thom earned the award for their investigative reporting on the misuse of vitamin regimens as a cure for AIDS among poor populations in the Cape Town area. The AIDS patients were falsely counseled that antiretrovirals were poisonous and that the vitamins would fight off their HIV infection. A print version of the story appeared in the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times, while the full version was available on the Health-e website http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20031368. In addition, a radio version of the investigation was aired on SABC’s SAfm morning show, AMLive and on the Vuyo Mbuli Show.
As part of the CNN MultiChoice Africa Journalist Award program, Kaiser with the support of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, organized a series of special HIV briefings and site visits for top journalists and senior media representative from many different African nations attending the program. The sessions featured expert discussions on the economic and development impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Lead discussants included Mrs. Graca Machel, former First Lady of Mozambique; Dr. Aiuba Cuereneia, Minister of Development and Planning, Mozambique; Dr. Ernest Darkoh, Chairman of BroadReach Health Care and former Director of Botswana’s National AIDS Treatment Program.
Seventeen of the finalists for the Kaiser-CNN Excellence in HIV/AIDS Journalism Award were also selected to participate in a four-day intensive seminar designed to explore fresh approaches to reporting on the epidemic. Kaiser is also providing assistance to enable these journalists from more than 10 African nations to attend the International AIDS Conference in Toronto this August to participate in journalist training sessions that Kaiser is running there and report on conference activities.
“The work of Bodibe and Thom are powerful examples of how in-depth, thoughtful reporting can help explain a situation that puts people at risk and even potentially save lives,” said Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “By recognizing great journalism we hope to foster additional reporting on HIV/AIDS to help inform people about the many ways the epidemics affects society.”
CNN International Managing Director, Chris Cramer said; “I am delighted that the Kaiser Family Foundation has shown such commitment to developing the award for HIV/AIDS journalism. This is an issue that should be at the forefront of the world’s news agenda and its important that we reflect this fact in the Award program.” The Award winners and those short-listed were selected by an independent judging panel nominated by CNN International and MultiChoice chaired by Joel Kibazo, Director of Communications and Public Affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat, and including Dr Doyinsola Abiola, Executive Director, The Daily Times Newspaper Group (Nigeria), Souleymane Diallo, President of West African Editors’ Forum, CNN’s Africa correspondent Jeff Koinange, Arlindo Lopes, Secretary General designate of SABA - Southern African Broadcasting Association, Jacqui O’Sullivan, Head of Corporate Communications and CSI, South African Airways and Anna Umbima journalist and broadcaster.
The CNN 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 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 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. Over the past decade the Kaiser extended this work globally, working with news and entertainment media organizations around the world to enhance the quality and quantity of information about HIV/AIDS. Kaiser also operates www.kaisernetwork.org, www.GlobalHealthReporting.org (with major support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and www.GlobalHealthFacts.org to make original programming and the latest news and information about HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria easily accessible to the global community.
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