Reporting Guidelines
General Press Release No. 121 (September 1990)

Drugs reporting - self-restraint

The Australian Press Council has on previous occasions warned of the dangers of the naming of drugs in newspaper reports.

The Council has again received a complaint which expresses concern over recent news reports naming drugs, particularly those with an abuse potential for young people.

The Press Council therefore reiterates its previous warning issued to all newspapers and journalists that a great responsibility rests upon them to present news about drugs with a lively sense of the danger that fear-arousing articles could cause curiosity and dangerous experimenting.

The Federal Department of Health has emphasised the danger, pointing out there is evidence that some kinds of press information provide models for people to copy potentially dangerous behaviour.

Drug addiction is so horrifying a feature of modern life that most careful consideration should he given to the likelihood of counterproductive effects from articles about, and the provision of, indiscriminate information about drugs, particularly where they are named, even though not naming them may lessen the impact of an article.

The Council once again urges all engaged in journalism to accept even rigid self-restraints rather than risk contributing to the spread of the disaster of drug-taking habits.
 

Other guidelines on reporting of drugs are GPR 20, GPR 36, GPR 100.

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