Newseum Panel Discusses AIDS in the Media

The Washington, D.C.-based Newseum, an interactive museum of news run by the Freedom Forum, a non-partisan, international foundation that promotes free press and free speech, on Thursday hosted a panel discussion on how the media has reported the AIDS epidemic. The forum, title "Reporting AIDS," was hosted by Frank Bond, Newseum correspondent and 22-year veteran of broadcast news, and featured Mark Grayson, PhRMA senior director of public relations, Bob Roehr, freelance journalist and AIDS activist, Steve Sternberg, writer for USA Today, and Philip Tazi, president of the African Correspondence Association. In addition to the participants on stage, Countess Albina du Boisrouvray, president of the Association Francois-Xavier Bagnaud, which works with children affected by AIDS, participated in the discussion from the audience. Participants discussed the media's response to AIDS, its responsibility in reporting the disease and how the media could be used to better disseminate information to youth about HIV/AIDS, and answered questions from the audience, which included a group of school children from New Jersey (Browett, Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 6/4).