July 11 is ‘World Population Day’. This is a day established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989 and observed every year to raise awareness of global population issues.
The theme for this year’s campaign is “It’s a right, let’s make it real”. The theme provides a chance to build awareness of the importance of family planning and reaffirms the right of people to plan their families. It encourages activities, events and information that will help make this right real – especially for those who often have the hardest time getting the information and services they need to plan their families, such as marginalised populations and young people.
Family planning can make a significant contribution to HIV prevention efforts. Programmes that emphasise the promotion of condoms for dual protection shield people from HIV infection as well as re-infection.

Issues journalists can address:-

• Raise awareness by informing people that family planning is a human right that everyone is entitled to. In 1968, world leaders proclaimed that individuals have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number of and timing of their children. Forty years later, modern contraception remains out of reach for hundreds of millions of women, men and young people.

• Young people are often neglected when it comes to matters of family planning and HIV and AIDS. They need information on family planning and services offered. The more information young people have the better knowledgeable they will be about prevention issues. The highest rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and more than half of new HIV infections worldwide occur in young people aged between 15 to 24 years. Journalists can advocate that information and services reach out to underserved groups such as the poor, adolescents, the disabled, minorities and other marginalised populations.

• Inform and educate people on the benefits. Family planning saves lives. Ensuring access to voluntary family planning could reduce maternal deaths by a third and child deaths by as much as 20 percent. According to UNFPA, researchers estimate that access to family planning could save the lives of about 175 000 women each year.

• Family planning information and services can help improve HIV prevention especially if programmes are integrated. Access to condoms is essential at all times. Condoms can be used for dual protection from HIV infection and unintended pregnancy. Family planning can help women to protect themselves from HIV infection and also help HIV positive women to avoid pregnancy if and when they wish to. It is the role of journalists to encourage people, inform and educate them on the importance of dual protection.

SOURCES

1.http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/noticeboards?nbpath=4882,601797

2. http:www.unfpa.org/rh

3. http:www.unfpa.org/wpd

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population