Inter Press Service - December 17, 2003
Gustavo González

The Unified Movement of Sexual Minorities (MUMS) has taken legal action against three TV stations that have refused to broadcast the spots produced as part of the latest government AIDS prevention campaign.

The stations say the ads run counter to their editorial policy by promoting the use of condoms, and because one of the spots shows a gay couple being physically affectionate.

But MUMS and other civil society organisations accuse the TV stations of double standards.

The refusal to air the campaign's four ads amounts to an attack on Chileans' right to health, because AIDS is a serious public health problem, argues the lawsuit brought on Dec. 15 by human rights lawyer Julia Urquieta, representing MUMS.

According to the governmental National AIDS Commission (CONASIDA), there are 5,200 people living with HIV, the AIDS virus, in this Southern Cone country of 16 million, as well as 4,600 people with the symptoms of full-blown AIDS.

But non-governmental organisations estimate the number of people testing positive for HIV at between 20,000 and 50,000.

Channel 13, which belongs to the Catholic University of Santiago, and the Catholic University of Valparaíso's TV station say they are following the position of the Roman Catholic Church, which rejects the use of condoms and promotes abstinence or monogamy within a stable relationship to prevent the spread of HIV.

A similar stance is taken by Ricardo Claro, the conservative businessman who owns the private Megavisión channel, the third free-to-air TV station opposed to the government's sixth prevention campaign, which was launched Dec. 1 at a cost of one million dollars.

Megavisión and the Catholic TV stations have refused to air ads promoting the use of condoms since the government's first televised anti-AIDS campaign, in 1991.

But on this occasion their stance has drawn howls of outrage, reflecting a change in Chilean society which, even though it is heavily Catholic and socially conservative in many respects, is not toeing the Church hierarchy's line in this case.

In a survey by the local daily La Tercera, 87 percent of respondents said they accepted the promotion of the use of condoms.

Activists accuse the three stations of double standards, and of taking a moralistic stance against the campaign that is not reflected in other parts of their programming.

"Morandé y Compañía", the Megavisión programme with the highest ratings, is a variety show where vulgarity, crude jokes and barely-dressed women abound. The most popular skit is the shower scene, in which model Marlene Olivarí's thin dress becomes transparent as she gets wet.

Carmen Bascuñán, with Megavisión's public relations department, told IPS that the station is opposed to the anti-AIDS campaign because "it does not fit in with our editorial line."

The journalist denied any inconsistency or double standards on the part of the station. "They are two completely different arguments," she said when asked about the AIDS campaign in comparison to the "Morandé y Compañía" show.

"The issue is much deeper than merely responding why Marlene Olivarí appears with scant clothing. The two positions are not comparable," said Bascuñán, before abruptly cutting off her conversation with IPS.

Meanwhile, one of the lead characters on the most popular Chilean TV series this year, "Machos", aired by channel 13, was a homosexual.

The president of the National Television Council, Patricia Politzer, welcomed the fact that a gay character who was neither effeminate nor had overly-stereotyped mannerisms was shown in a local programme for the first time.

Actors Diego Muñoz, Renato Munster, Ingrid Cruz and Berta Lasala, from the cast of "Machos", publicly spoke out in favour of the campaign promoting the use of condoms.

The world of "Chilean TV is full of homosexuals. We are urging them not to keep silent," said MUMS spokesman Marco Ruz, who celebrated the launch of the government's anti-AIDS campaign with a choreographed performance outside the presidential palace of La Moneda.

Late-night viewers of the station that belongs to the Catholic University of Valparaíso can also see suggestive ads featuring a semi-nude woman, a phone number, and the question "Are You Alone?"

The station's executive vice-president, Jorge Bornschever, denied in remarks to IPS that the spots are advertising for sexual services. Besides, he argued, "They are aired in a late-late night slot, as late-late night as it gets, at three or four in the morning, while the other (the AIDS prevention campaign) is on during the day, when children are around."

"It's simple," added Bornschever. "The station belongs to the Catholic University, to the Catholic Church, and operates in accordance with the line followed by the institution, which says that the way to prevent AIDS is not through the use of condoms."

Recent paedophilia scandals that have shaken the Catholic Church in Chile have been another cause of complaints regarding the Church hierarchy's conservative position towards AIDS prevention.

"Tato the priest does not use condoms," the fortnightly local publication The Clinic sarcastically wrote in reference to a priest, José Andrés Aguirre, who was convicted and sentenced for raping several girls in his parish, one of whom became pregnant.

In its latest rejection of the promotion of condoms, the Church hierarchy invoked supposedly scientific reasons, according to which condoms are not safe, because they are "only" 80 percent effective in preventing the transmission of HIV.

But "Even if they were just 40 percent effective, their use would be recommendable, since the option is no protection," Sandro Salinas, a 22-year-old university student, commented to IPS.

"It must be made clear that people don't get this disease (AIDS) by playing chess," said Health Minister Pedro García, defending the promotion of condom use. "In 94 percent of cases it is transmitted through sexual relations, and that is what the campaign has to clearly get across," he added.

The condom has proven to be highly effective in curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS, said Genevi ve Paicheler, a French expert on AIDS prevention campaigns, on a recent visit to Santiago.

Paicheler, a sociologist, said that in France, "the campaigns not only talk about the use of condoms, but about the different kinds of couples and sexual partners, and the best lubricants as well."

In countries like France, Spain, the United States, Canada, Argentina and Brazil, anti-AIDS campaigns are becoming more explicit in promoting condoms and raising awareness on how to use them correctly. The debate in Europe calmed down "when several priests and bishops spoke out in defence of the use of the condom," said Paicheler.

To counteract the Catholic Church's campaign in Chile, the Health Ministry posted on its web site an academic analysis of the latest research carried out on the effectiveness of the condom.

In Italy, HIV transmission occurred in only 1.7 percent of cases when condoms were used by couples made up of an HIV-positive individual and a healthy partner. Under the same circumstances, the transmission rate was 2.4 percent in Haiti, the country in the Americas with the highest proportion of people living with HIV/AIDS.

"The high level of effectiveness of the condom demonstrated by the great majority of existing studies backs up its incorporation as a public health measure that, although it does not completely eliminate the possibility of HIV transmission, does considerably reduce it, and this fact alone justifies its use as a prevention strategy," says the Ministry.

In its analysis of 25 studies conducted in recent years, the Health Ministry found that the effectiveness of the condom ranged from 60 to 97 percent, and averaged 87 percent. In addition, it found that condoms broke, due to inexperience or misuse, in just 0.5 percent of cases of vaginal sex.

The Health Ministry also responds to another argument set forth by the Catholic Church in Chile by clarifying that the HIV virus measures 100 nanometers, while pores that can be found in latex condoms are no bigger than 30 nanometers in diameter.

*****

+ Health Ministry - in Spanish

(http://www.minsal.cl)

(END/IPS/LA/HE-IC/TRA-SO SW/GGR/DM/03)

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