PHA-Exchange> PHA- WHA media strategy- Plan

[aviva]

PEOPLE’S  HEALTH  MOVEMENT’s presence in Geneva 
during the World Health Assembly (May 2002)

A note on media / advocacy strategy:

Note:  Immediate response on how you look at this strategy and what you 
may think can be done and should NOT be done. Thus finalise the media 
strategy. (This needs to be done latest by March 30th). We cannot alert 
journalists of drop this idea. It will be counter-productive. At the 
same time, we cannot delay this any further as we will just have 4 
weeks after March 30th. PLEASE TREAT THIS AS URGENT, IN CASE PHM IS 
INTERESTED TO TAKE THIS FORWARD.

Aim: To call the attention of the media on crucial issues that define 
health and ill-health in today’s context. Also to generate visibility 
for the People’s Health Assembly / Movement (PHM)

Objective: After the PHA 2000, barring isolated activities and rare 
presence during international conferences, there has not been a 
concerted and regular attempt to give more visibility for the PHM and 
the health issues that matter to PHM / people.

In this context, the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA) may be used 
as an occasion to meet two basic objectives:

·	To present the “people’s voices”, opinions and view-points on 
the vital issues related to health in the mainstream media (local, 
national, regional and international).
·	Use this as an opportunity to energise the PHM network through 
a common activity spread over a period of next two months (April and 
May 2002)

Suggested plan of action:

The focus: Web, TV and radio and the print media. 

March 2002:

Starting from March first week onwards we may put efforts to:

·	Reconnect with the journalists who came for the PHA
·	Reconnect with the journalists who wrote about PHA
·	Generate a list of journalists and others who may be enthused 
to cover the PHM during the WHA.
·	We may write to all active individuals and organisations to 
seek solidarity for the media strategy in their countries.
·	We may map what other organisations (like MSF) is planning and 
may seek collaboration.


April 2002:

(A) We begin by a curtain raiser press release  on May 4th, ie; 14 days 
before the “ PHA day”  at WHA. This press release will help to:

(a)	On the content side: 

·	Raise a debate about the global health challenges
·	Inform the post PHA activities
·	Position PHA’s critique of the UN and other institutions, 
including the WHO.
·	The blackout of the key issues that the WHA may ignore, but 
those which are crucial in “giving health a chance”

(b)	On the networking side:
·	Alert the friendly journalists about the upcoming event
·	Alert them about the activities during the “four active” days 
·	Provide them briefs and contacts of PHM people at the national 
and international level so that they can file news items of their own 
interests

(B) We need to prepare a dozen analysis papers (1500 words or more), on 
critical and topical issues, with updated facts and figures. This could 
be circulated, mainly to the press as media briefs and used for general 
circulation. Some of the topics suggested are:
(a)	Crisis in health- the real issues before the WHA
(b)	What WHO will never discuss at WHA & why they will not discuss 
it?
(c)	Globalisation and health
(d)	Accessibility to life saving drugs- an year after the South 
African court case
(e)	From Alma Alta to AIDS drugs- for whom the WHO stands today?
(f)	Governance- how does the WHO system work today?
(g)	Governance – Should the next Director General be from the South 
(h)	Rebuilding the health system in Afghanistan- Lessons from 
Kosovo for Kabul.
(i)	Why there are no “Seattles” and “Davos” when it comes World 
Health Assemblies?
(j)	Preparing for Bio terror – Antibiotics Vs Public health
(k)	Palestine – a year of casualties amongst health workers

Please note that these are tentative topics that were generated by 
asking friends in the media what they may be interested to write. This 
list may be modified.

(C ) We may also prepare a series of short press statements that may be 
circulated to PHM networks widely.

ALL MEDIA AND OTHER BRIEFING MATERIALS MAY BE POSTED ON THE PHA AND 
OTHER POSSIBLE WEB SITES.

(D) We may put efforts to post opinion articles in the International 
Herald Tribune, The Guardian, Le Republica, Le Monde, Geneva based 
newspapers and all other possible international, national and local 
print media.

(E) We may also lobby to get space in the BBC radio, TV and other 
electronic media networks.

(F) We may sponsor the visit of 2 to five journalists from different 
parts of the World to be present in Geneva, for a week, during the WHA. 

May 2002:

(A)	On the evening before the WHA begins, a procession / march 
through Geneva may help to capture the media attention. We may enquire 
about the possibilities of addressing the general public (street) 
during this event. A press conference may be held before the event and 
a press release may be issued along with photographs. We could arrange 
phone-in interviews with interested journalists who may not be coming 
to Geneva.

(B)   We may approach the BBC (Tim Sebastian ??) to stage a debate in 
BBC on the global health crisis. We may also try the same with French 
and Spanish media. 

(C ) We may organise press conferences and issue press releases on 
16th, 17th and 18th . These press releases (in five languages) may be 
circulated widely to ensure that international, national and local 
media gives coverage. We may request PHA active members to share the 
responsibility to circulate it at the national level in individual 
countries.

(D ) Since the issue is hot, Afghanistan will be a much sort subject. 
PHA may co-organise a three-hours long conference on “ Rebuilding 
health care in Afghanistan”- The road ahead”. We may get speakers from 
(a) Afghanistan (b) Balkans (c) Palestine and three more speakers. The 
key objective of this conference is: Visibility for PHM . If we can 
time this conference on the day before the WHA begins, this will give 
us an excellent opportunity to remind the press and other actors about 
PHM’s presence and availability. We may use this effect for the next 
five days. Media briefs and other materials also could be circulated. 
PHA may co-organise this with as many interested organisations such as 
……………..(Readers, please suggest).

Team:

The suggestion is to reactivate the team that did the media campaign 
during PHA.  



To put the media strategy in place, we need: 

a.	Immediate response on how you look at this strategy and what 
you may think can be done and should NOT be done. Thus finalise the 
media strategy. (This needs to be done latest by March 30th). We cannot 
alert journalists of drop this idea. It will be counter-productive. At 
the same time, we cannot delay this any further as we will just have 4 
weeks after March 30th. PLEASE TREAT THIS AS URGENT, IN CASE PHM IS 
INTERESTED TO TAKE THIS FORWARD.
b.	Clear commitment from who can do what ? Individual as well as 
organisational commitment. We may have to start working on the briefing 
papers immediately.
c.	Locating a media / communication centre at Geneva. 
d.	List of PHM people who will be coming to Geneva. (dates and 
their availability). This will help to fix interviews with journalists.
e.	Resources 

 

( Note: This note, prepared by Unni (unnikru at yahoo.com), also reflects 
the suggestions that came during the discussions with Dr. Ravi Narayan, 
Dr. Zafrullah , Manoj Kurien and Sathya Sivaraman. This will be further 
modified after the meetings with Eric Ram and Fawzia Rasheed in March 
3rd week).
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