The Mopheme-The Survivor newspaper of 16-22 November 2004, headline ‘Food Security A tool Against HIV/AIDS' reads:

“ African governments must realize that food security is a powerful tool in the fight against HIV/AIDS, it reduces vulnerability of populations affected and infected by the pandemic, argues Mary Crewe, Director of the Centre for the Study of AIDS at the University of Pretoria.”

“ Food should be looked at as an important prevention issue and also as a gender issue. In order to intervene more accordingly, we must think of AIDS as a catalyst, a problem that leads to other problems so that we can effectively deal with it” the article further reads.

The Source newspaper of October 5 2004 , headline ‘Orphans growing and coping alone in Maseru ' reads:
“ Children and young people who have lost one or both parent to AIDS are likely to suffer from problems such as increased medicine costs, loss of adult income, decreased land cultivation and agricultural output, funeral costs, property dispossession, school absenteeism dropping out, malnutrition, psychological problems and homelessness. These children may be exposed to the worst form of child labour, including domestic work, quarr[y]ing and commercial sex work.” The article goes on to provide statistical information relevant to Sub Saharan Africa.

A misconception that has come to light during the monitoring process is that HIV and AIDS are diseases. In a number of articles phrases such as “…has died of the AIDS disease” or “HIV is a disease”. This points to a lack of knowledge or ignorance of the facts and getting wrong the language to be used when addressing or writing about HIV/AIDS. This notwithstanding, some individuals argue that the issue is not language use, but peoples' attitudes. The question arising is: ‘How will the media help people to change their mindsets when they (the media) portray issues in an incorrect manner?'

Key Findings
The immense coverage given to HIV and AIDS indicates that the media is aware of cross-cutting issues that are a cause of or a result of the pandemic in Lesotho and Sub Saharan Africa. It is putting the issues aggressively in the forefront that must be emphasised upon the media, rather than reporting merely on the health factor.

Most crucial, is the lack of knowledge on exactly what HIV is and the nature of the syndrome. This puts at risk the effectiveness of messages that are passed on to the public and thereby causing confusion as well as panic. Getting rid of the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV and AIDS depends in part on the media's ability to use sensitive and non inflammatory language that will not portray a ‘doom and gloom' view but will instead promote a positive outlook.

Conclusion
The issues of gender based violence, gender equality, HIV and AIDS are inter-linked with the cross-cutting issues of cultural practices, poverty and disparity. The media must move away from reporting each issue in isolation. A combined effort on reporting the links in the issues will boost public awareness and promote public acceptance and ownership of the issues at hand, not as problems, but as challenges that should be transformed into opportunities, thereby resulting in solutions.

To this end, the media must adhere to their role of responsibly changing the public's mindsets, and attitudes, being catalysts for change, and being socially responsible to the public by providing information to help people make informed decisions.

The final outcome of this report will be used as a working document for a Media
Workshop on Gender, HIV and AIDS.

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