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Grassroots Expose of the Impact of India’s New Patent Legislation on AIDS Treatment

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Posted on behalf of my friends Prof. Sandeep Junarkar and Srinivas Kuruganti

In March 2005, India passed a new patent law that is likely to have global ramifications in the treatment of AIDS patients – especially those in the developing world –who depend on India's generic drug industry to provide drugs well below the prices charged by multinational pharmaceutical companies. In order to join the World Trade Organization, India had to fulfill the obligation to recognize and protect global patents. The bill that was passed in March meets this requirement. Much of the mainstream press has emphasized a business perspective when reporting this development, focusing on India's opportunity to tap the Western generic drug market while only briefly acknowledging the potentially devastating impact of the new rule on vulnerable populations.

During the summer of 2005, we plan to create a baseline record that establishes how India's HIV-infected populations depend on the Indian versions of Western patented Anti-retro Viral (ARV) drugs to survive. The baseline will also establish how they think they will manage as drug prices surge and any stockpiled drugs are depleted.

Using audio recorders, photographs and video, Sandeep Junnarkar and Srinivas Kuruganti [see team information here] plan to document the lives of families struggling to buy ARV drugs to keep a family member healthy; the challenges that stigmatized AIDS patients face in trying to earn enough money to buy the lifesaving treatment; activists desperately searching for new sources of inexpensive ARV drugs or lobbying the Indian government to grant compulsory licenses to continue producing cheap drugs. We plan to visit AIDS shelters and hospices in and around Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai.

The project will harness the Internet to showcase an issue with global ramifications — not just as information but as a way to involve viewers.

A multimedia grassroots expose can completely bypass the traditional media gatekeepers to help people gain awareness of a pressing issue. We hope the project will not only inform people around the world that India's new patent law is likely to have a global impact, further aggravating the AIDS health crisis, but also allow them to spread the information widely using built-in Internet technologies. We also hope the multimedia slide presentation moves them to take the next step by clicking on the links to send emails to the appropriate officials or organizations to acknowledge the potential health crisis.

The expenses for this project are primarily travel costs to and within India. As a grassroots effort, Srinivas and Sandeep plan to stay with family, friends and at inexpensive hotels. We strongly believe that this issue will be ignored by the mainstream media but is of global importance because of the ramifications of the new patent law on the AIDS treatment. Nonetheless, the total cost to report, record, photograph and video is in the range of $5,000.

Indiana University has kindly provided $2,000 of the total $5,000 required for helping to defray the cost of air travel, video tapes and other minimum necessities. Please help by donating any amount you can afford.

Please visit our web site to help support this project.

Indian Ink

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Business Week declares that India is THE place to be if you are a print or broadcast journallist.

How will it all shake out? Can we just expect an aping of the West; celebrity news delivered to us ad nauseum? Will journalistic integrity fall prey to advertising interests [there are murmurs about this right now with regard to The Times of India]? Will a newly minted journalism degree from the US or the UK garner you the kind of work you want to pursue in India? Who will you be competing against and will your standards match theirs and vice versa?

The media wars in India may appear like a gold rush, but I suggest treading carefully before fully immersing yourself in the mix.

Liar, Liar, Your Newspaper Is On Fire

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Apple is fighting a legal battle against a group of rumor-sites. Apparently someone inside Apple spilled the beans about Apple's new operating system and these Apple-centric sites prematurely published the info. These websites that have a blog-like feel to them are now claiming that they should be protected under the same rights that journalists enjoy; i.e. they feel they do not have to reveal their sources. While journalists sometimes are bloggers, bloggers aren't always journalists. Bloggers don't share the burden of responsibility, credibility, honesty, fairness or clarity that journalists must often carry as professionals. Notice I didn't mention objectivity.

From TechWhackNews:

“The court ruled that there is no legal protection for those reporters who publishes a company’s trade secrets. In addition, Apple had also sued 25 of their employees who they suspected of leaking information to these online news resources claiming that the probable leaks violated nondisclosure agreements and California’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act. They also demanded that the news sources in question should reveal their sources.”

But given how public support of local and national newspapers has waned and the scandals within established journalism circles are curiously on the rise, I am not so sure bloggers want or should be calling themselves “journalists.”

I just learned that Mitch “Tuesdays With Morrie” Albom, who is a sports writer at the Detroit Free Press, is courting a potential dismissal from his job there. That's plain sad that a columist who is highly regarded should succumb to, well, laziness. Albom wrote a column recently about two of his buddies from Michigan State University who were supposed to be at a game Albom was covering. While Albom described in great detail his former college friends at the game, the fact was these guys changed their mind and didn't make it to the event. The column had been fabricated.

We all know about The New York Times debacle with one of its writers, Jayson Blair. Let's not forget CBS News and Dan Rather's involvement in that mess called “investigative reporting” of President George Bush's National Guard service records. Then there was the outing of James D. Gukhert, aka. Jeff Gannon, who wrote for the conservative website, Talon News. Gukhert assumed a name and applied for press credentials when in reality he had no business being in the press briefing room of The White House.

“Gannon first gained attention several weeks ago when he asked a question at a presidential press conference that some in the press corps considered so friendly it might have been planted. Later E&P revealed that Gannon had been turned down last year for a congressional press pass because he could not prove his employer was a valid news organization. That denial barred him from receiving a White House “hard pass,” allowing regular access to White House press events.”

So, if you are a journalist these days you don't have to be in Iraq to be wearing a flak jacket. Potshots are commonplace. Is newspapering on its way out? Are blogs the CNN of the newspaper world; your “news” now? Who do we turn to for honest, real reporting when credibility is at an all time low? Will some blogs assume that role? Which ones and why? Leave your comments here. I'll be sure to check all appropriate links.

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