Reporting Guidelines
General Press Release No. 18 (February 1978)

The Mentally Handicapped

The Australian Press Council stresses the undesirability of the identification in newspapers of persons as mentally handicapped unless such identification is relevant to the matter published.

The Council's statement follows a request from the Australian Association for the Mentally Retarded. The Association said in a letter to the Council that unnecessary labelling of a person because of his handicap was detrimental to his progress and acceptance in society.

The Council accepts this point of view and commends it to the press generally.
 

Also on disability reporting: GPR 91.

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