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Red AIDS ribbon banned from Zimbabwe television

The internationally recognized awareness symbol of HIV/AIDS — the red ribbon — is no longer allowed to appear on Zimbabwean state television, according to a report by Zimbabwe News Service. Zimbabwe's Ministry of Information and Publicity has ordered the state broadcaster not to show the colour. Producers of Zimbabwe's weekly HIV/AIDS discussion programme, Perspectives, ordered participants to remove their red ribbons before filming could begin. The colour red is associated with the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change. Zimbabwe Television employees told the UK newspaper, The Independent, that they had received instruction not to give unnecessary publicity to the opposition by using the colour red on screen.