Reporting Guidelines
General Press Release No. 36 (July 1980)

Drugs - naming

The Australian Press Council has again had a complaint about the naming in articles of drugs being used or likely to be used by young people.

The Press Council reiterates a warning previously issued to all newspapers and journalists of the great responsibility which rests upon them to present news about drugs with a lively sense of the danger that fear-arousing articles may well encourage 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 be given to the likelihood of counter-productive 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 100, GPR 121.

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