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The Time to Live! talk show is a unique television series focused on the spread of HIV/AIDS in Russia. It first aired on December 1, 2004, on Russian television’s Channel 1. Live broadcasts of the talk show have been hosted by Vladimir Pozner and Tutta Larsen. The shows are hugely popular with large segments of the population, have received a great deal of media coverage throughout the Russian Federation and have been acclaimed as the best television program of the month by prominent TV critics. The total viewership has steadily risen into millions. Time to Live!, which was conceived by the well-known and respected TV-journalist Vladimir Pozner, is coordinated by a coalition of 7 nongovernmental and governmental organizations some of which are Russian and others international. One of the key aspects of this series is the high level of localization, with specific Time to Live! shows being developed and produced in 14 cities throughout the Russian Federation. The bulk of the funding and of the production expertise for this regional TV series is provided by the Center for Social Development and Information (PSI) as part of the GLOBUS Project. Time to Live! TV series, hosted by Vladimir Pozner and Elena Hanga, is the first long-running public interest project in the country to address the mounting epidemic of HIV/AIDS at the regional level. It’s greatest and most unique aspect is that it is targeted at raising awareness of the precise issues and problems related to HIV/AIDS affecting specific regions, cities and Oblasts. The regional scope of the project allows it to attract much-needed attention to the problem of HIV/AIDS on the part of the local governments and communities. Furthermore, it promotes a more active response to the spread of HIV and combats discriminatory attitudes with respect to people living with HIV/AIDS. Each program is designed to cover one or two general themes relating to HIV/AIDS. Discussion topics include among others, living conditions of children infected with HIV, the stigma attached to HIV-positive individuals, social responsibilities of local business leaders, awareness of personal risk for HIV infection, and expansion of routine testing for HIV/AIDS. “A more civilized approach to dealing with this particular problem says a great deal about society as a whole. In many countries around the world, successful and prominent individuals often actively participate in the fight against HIV/AIDS. By doing so, these persons demonstrate a higher level of commitment to their communities and serve as an example for all,” said Vladimir Pozner when characterizing his rationale for participating in the Time to Live! effort. As of June of 2006, TV shows have been broadcasted in 14 cities across
the country, including St. Petersburg, Ulan-Ude, Ulyanovsk, Tver, Krasnoyarsk,
Kazan, Nizhniy Novgorod, Orenburg and Volzhskiy. In addition to producing
TV series, the Time to Live! project is branching out into additional
areas. For instance, a nationwide contest for the best coverage of
HIV\AIDS issues was conducted among TV journalists in the spring of
2006. Moreover, a school for journalists covering public interest topics
was organized under the direction of Vladimir Pozner. |
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