IHRD and IFJ to Offer International Award for Excellence in Reporting on Drugs and HIV/AIDS

The International Harm Reduction Development Program (IHRD) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) are co-sponsoring “Real Life Matters,” an international award for excellence in reporting drugs and HIV/AIDS issues. The award is open to journalists in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, a region where the HIV/AIDS epidemic is growing at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world.

The “Real Life Matters” competition seeks to promote journalistic excellence and foster wider understanding and awareness of the complex realities of drug users and people with HIV/AIDS. In doing so, the award recognizes the media’s responsibility in raising public awareness and safeguarding the fundamental rights of drug users and people with HIV/AIDS, while underpinning the values of professionalism, journalists’ ethics, and media diversity.

Who can enter?

The “Real Life Matters” competition is open to print/online, radio, and television reporters employed by the local media in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Entries submitted will be judged for their success in portraying the complex realities of those wrestling with drug use and /or work with them. A focus on HIV/AIDS treatment and/or prevention is not required, though welcome. Entries submitted must have been published or broadcast between November 1, 2002 and January 31, 2004.

The deadline for entry is February 15, 2004. There are no entry fees.

NOTE: Two PDF documents at the bottom of this page contain 1) additional competition information and 2) an application form.

Background Information from IHRD about HIV/AIDS and Drugs

Drugs and HIV/AIDS
Overwhelming evidence confirms that there has been a massive increase in drug use—particularly of injection drugs—in most countries of the Central and Eastern Europe/former Soviet Union (CEE/FSU) region over the past decade. According to recent estimates there are currently between 2.3 and 4 million injecting drug users in the region and the number of users is growing. These trends are exacerbating a range of devastating drug-related harms such as HIV/AIDS.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic—largely linked to the sharing of contaminated blood in injection equipment—is growing faster in parts of the CEE/FSU region than anywhere else in the world. In 1995, the number of HIV infections in the region was estimated at below 30,000. At the end of 1999, this estimate had climbed to 420,000. A year later, the estimated number of HIV infections had almost doubled to 700,000.

Drugs, HIV/AIDS and Human Rights
Repressive laws and policies as well as punitive policing are the most common responses to drug use and drug users in the region. A number of countries have recently passed legislation partly inspired by the “zero-tolerance” approach that dominates current U.S. drug policy. In general, official policy across the region continues to be guided by international conventions on drug use that emphasize drug interdiction and drug user incarceration approaches. Police harassment of drug users is also widespread. It is reported that, in some countries, police round up young people suspected of drug use to search for signs of injecting or force them to be tested for HIV. Those who test positive have their drug use and HIV status registered.

These and other human rights abuses are compounded by the failure to provide needed services to drug users. The few official drug treatment programs that do exist often share the punitive approach to drug users that characterizes official drug policy. Counselling, peer support, and other approaches that address the psychosocial needs of people trying to deal with their addiction are rarely used. Substitution treatment is unavailable in many countries in the region, and illegal in some, despite the evidence that it is proven to reduce drug-related crime, HIV infection, and other diseases.

Access to Information and Treatment
Unauthorized possession of needles and syringes is illegal in many countries in the CEE/FSU region. Lack of access to clean injection equipment therefore forces many users to share, which puts them at risk of contracting HIV. Many users of illegal drugs refuse to visit health care professionals for fear of contact with state agencies or the police. Consequently, they lack knowledge about the health risks of injecting drug use in general, and their own health situation in particular.

In many countries, deteriorating health care systems struggle to provide the public with even the most basic information on HIV/AIDS. Bearing a double stigma, HIV positive drug injectors face even more discrimination in accessing treatment and care. The Joint United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that antiretroviral treatment (ARV) reaches less than 10 percent of those that need it in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Drugs, HIV/AIDS and the Media
Overwhelming international evidence points to the efficacy of harm reduction approaches in reducing the individual and social harms associated with drug use, especially HIV/AIDS. But developing harm reduction in the CEE/FSU region brings a number of challenges. Especially the hostile policy environment, together with negative social attitudes toward drug users and people with HIV/AIDS, inhibits the expansion of harm reduction services to the requisite scale.

Fair and accurate reporting plays a vital role in raising public awareness of and shaping national and international responses to drug use and HIV/AIDS. However, many news stories continue to portray drugs users and people with HIV/AIDS only in terms of the threat they pose to others. All too often, drug users and their families are merely represented as silent objects of law enforcement or drug control campaigns, or not included in media coverage at all.

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