CRI听力：China's Commercial Media Onboard Anti-AIDS Campaign

A series of ambitious new HIV/AIDS awareness public service announcements or PSAs have been launched to promote safe sexual practices in China. The programme is co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Program, China's Ministry of Health and the country's major commercial media.

CRI's Zheng Chenguang was there at the launching ceremony.

Report:

Pu Cunxin is China's AIDS Ambassador and one of the main actors in the PSAs.

"I think we are doing an important thing here, which can be summed up by one word: promotion."

Also featuring Hong Kong star Jackie Chan and mainland singer Peng Liyuan, the PSAs were created by Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon, Oscar winners for the Best Documentary - Short Subject at the 2006 Academy Awards.

The PSAs will be shown in China's major cities and also the provincial TV stations following the launch ceremony.

Commercial media, which broadcast information through the Internet and video platforms on public transportation vehicles, can now make their own unique contributions to the anti-AIDS campaign. Through their efforts, people such as business travelers and migrant workers, who are constantly on the go, will now have easy access to the campaign.

Edmund Settle, UNDP HIV/AIDS Program Manager in China.

"Commercial media can actually expand the geographic scope of the campaign. So instead of just reaching people at their homes, now we are reaching people on the buses, we are reaching people on the trains, we are reaching people on the side of the road, we are reaching people at grocery stores!"

Settle also said as these commercial media organizations' coverage proliferates in China's big cities, people will watch the PSAs several times each day. Then the influence of the campaign will be enormous.

"What is interesting about this campaign is that it's not one person seeing it at one time, it's one person seeing it multiple times. So theoretically, I can see it at home, I can go to work and see it on the bus. I can go to the office and see it in the elevator. So it's becoming this constant message about protecting yourself. "

According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health, about 224,000 people in China have been reported to have HIV. One of the most effective approaches to containing the spread of the disease, health experts say, is to promote public awareness of AIDS prevention and control.

The Chinese government has made efforts to maximize resources to contain the spread of the deadly disease.

Zheng Chenguang, CRI news.