InterPress News Service (IPS); Thursday, 10 April 1997.
Gustavo Gonzalez

Frei has accused officials of the private Magavision network and the Catholic University's TV ststaion of being tacit accomplices in the deaths of those afflicted with the aquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

In a candid statement Tuesday Frei, a Christian Democrat, said the refusal to broadcast constituted "the worst possible reaction to existing circumstances concerning AIDS. To bury one's head in the sand, thus ignoring the problem, amounts to tacit collaboration with the destruction of the nations' young people."

Catholic Television and Megavision are the only Chilean stations to censor publicty spots on the Health Ministry's campaign to prevent AIDS which was launched during last month.

The TV spots show situations in which couples initiate sexual relations without adopting preventive measures. In the end, the woman is infected by a man who is ignorant that he is a carrier of the HIV virus which leads to AIDS.

The TV campaign repeats the message of "safe sex" - either by abstinence or, in a commited relationship, by using condoms. Catholic Television and Megavision refuse to broadcast the spots on the grounds that their content contradicts editorial policy.

Both Catholic Television and Megavision - whose proprietor is magnate Ricardo Claro, a Roman Catholic conservative - have systematically rejected AIDS prevention campaigns which allude to condom use.

The moral arguments made by Catholic Television and Megavision have been questioned by the Health Ministry, the Medical College, parliamentarians, youth groups and non-governmental women's organizations which favor prevention and assistance to anyone suffering the disease. Critics point out the two TV stations do not apply similar moral categories when they broadcast soap operas and films with an erotic content, as well as other questionable programs whose object is to raise ratings.

Frei says he will introduce a parliamentary bill to reform the constitution and abolish censorship in Chile, since censorship is "an obstacle to building the free society that we all want."

Frei accused the non-cooperative TV channels of "hypocrisy" and said both stations regularly broadcast images "that are far stronger than anything in the AIDS campaign, images that are so strong that they certainly foster bad taste, and sometimes transmit dubious moral values."

Frei's vigorously defended public health spots produced by the National AIDS Prevention Commission, a branch of the national Public Health Ministry.

Frei says that the anti-AIDS campaign has been put together by specialists whose objective is to present options for "responsible conduct" in a framework of sensitivity and respect for "individual liberty and national values."

In his address, Frei pointed out that, according to recent statistics, 10 Chileans are infected with the AIDS virus every day, most of them aged 18 to 24.

Dr. Raquel Child, Director of the National Commission for the Prevention of AIDS, stated last week that Chile "is at a significant crossroads" in its approach to this disease since AIDS is no longer confined to high risk groups such as homosexual men and sex workers.

Health Ministry statistics reveal that increasing numbers of heterosexual women are being infected by their usual sexual partners, who, in turn, are contracting the disease from sexual relations with other women.

From 1984 until 1996, medical authorities have identified 1,777 cases of AIDS - and 2,678 individuals who carry the HIV virus. They estimated that the actual number of HIV carriers could be 10,000 while AIDS-related deaths numbered 1,142. (END/IPS/gg/aa/mk/97)

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