 A SENIOR health executive yesterday said that film and television programme makers need to be more responsible in their approach to safe sex issues. Professor Dr John Ashton, North West Regional Director of Public Health, spoke out after the first annual report of the Health Protection Agency published figures showing an overall national rise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) during 2003. He said that film and TV had a particular hold over young people, one of the groups highlighted by the report as being at risk from sexually transmitted diseases. And he said that schedulers need to get away from their portrayal of characters engaging in casual encounters as something that is glamorous. However, TV producer Colin McKeown, a creator of Channel 4's former flagship soap Brookside, criticised the implication that television should function like a "public information bureau". Dr Ashton, (pictured), cited the example of James Bond, who combines high espionage with international travel and serial womanising. "In real life, a globe-trotter like James Bond, who never appeared to use condoms, would almost certainly be HIV positive by the end of his career," Professor Ashton said. "He would also have picked up a string of other sexually transmitted infections along the way and he would have been more at risk from careless sex." Professor Ashton said that young people, along with gay men, were a group particularly at high risk from STIs. "Unfortunately young people in particular are influenced by what they see on film and television," he said.. " It influences their behaviour and makes it difficult for us to persuade them that they really do need to use condoms with new partners. "Programme makers, whether for film or television, need to be more responsible about how they portray sex and they need to be aware of the impact their products have on impressionable young people." However, Mr McKeown said: "No one's going to watch a show that is too obviously politically correct. "Socially relevant drama should go for the jugular by raising contraversial issues in a realistic way. "For example, if a soap character were behaving irresponsibly, the audience would see that but they would also see the reactions of other characters, which would give a balance. "I believe that the best drama holds a mirror up to society and reflects it back." Hollyoaks, the Channel 4 soap, is specifically targeted at the vulnerable teenage group. | 
