Beijing, 17 September 2008 –- UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot presented today the “UNAIDS Award for Outstanding Contributions to the AIDS Response” to Professor Li Xiguang, Executive Dean of School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University, as well as Chinese basket ball icon Yao Ming, and UNAIDS Special Representative Serge Dumont, Senior Vice President and President Asia Pacific of Omnicom Group Inc.

Dr. Peter Piot who has been the leader of UNAIDS for 12 years and has observed and supported the AIDS work personally through his many visits to China said: “I am really pleased that the AIDS response has the critical support of sports stars, the business community, media and academia alike. AIDS is so much more than a health issue and without the help of champions like the ones we honour today, we cannot be successful in stopping the spread of AIDS.”

Li Xiguang is the Vice Director of Tsinghua Comprehensive AIDS Research Center. He said: “Journalists can make an important difference to how people think about AIDS through good reporting. False perceptions need to be overcome by communicating correct information in interesting and innovative ways.”

Every three months for the last four years, a group of 30 journalists and people living with HIV/AIDS would check into a guest houses near Tsinghua Unversity, where they would spend the next three days living, eating and learning together in a workshop “Training Program for Covering HIV/AIDS in China”. Sitting in a Tsinghua classroom, the journalists, media experts and people living with HIV/AIDs will study, learn, actively participate in the lectures, group discussions, games and share their experiences in reporting and fighting HIV/AIDS. Most of the time, in group discussions, the participants living with HIV/AIDS are arguing strongly against the media participants about the unethical, inaccurate and biased reporting of Chinese media in covering HIV/AIDS.

Li Xiguang is China’s leading health journalism educator and his team has also been serving as the country’s top think tank and media policy advisor in public health, such as in the fights against HIA/AIDS, SARS, bird flu and tobacco control.

He has edited and authored a number of educational books such as HIV/AIDS Media Book, Reporting against Stigmas: HIV/AIDS stories from China, A Handbook for Human Rights Reporting and A Handbook for Tobacco Control Reporting.

Yao Ming thanked Dr. Piot and UNAIDS for the award by video message as he is currently occupied with finding ways to help the earthquake victims of Sichuan province. Yao Ming’s manager received the gold medal on his behalf. The award is in honour of his very public and strong support to counter stigma and discrimination of people living with HIV.

“I am very honoured to receive this esteemed award for AIDS work. Contributing to the fight against AIDS is something that I happily do as I believe that AIDS is one of the most important global problems. We can and we should all do something to stop the spread of AIDS and the discrimination of people living with HIV” said Yao Ming.

Businessman and UNAIDS Special Representative Serge Dumont said: "There are many ways the business sector can contribute to a successful AIDS response. In particular, savvy approaches are required in a number of places around the world to help overcome the prevalent prejudices, which continue to affect people living with HIV".

AIDS work in China has in the past 5 years been strengthened significantly by the increasing mobilisation of many different non-health sectors such as private business and the media. However, much remains to be done.

A resent survey supported by UNAIDS found that 65% of the surveyed adult population were unwilling to live in the same household as a person living with HIV. Nearly 50 % thought mistakenly that HIV can be transmitted through a mosquito bite.