Reporting Guidelines
General Press Release No. 91 (July 1987)

Disability - identification

The Australian Press Council has been asked to issue guidelines on the publishing of the names or otherwise identifying wards of the State or those suffering disability or mental illness impairing their ability to speak for themselves.

The question was raised by a Victorian child and family organisation and a newspaper following the publishing of the names of two girls who were or had been wards of the State. The publication of the names was, in fact, at the request of some of their relatives; although this identification did not add significantly to the thrust of the report.

The Press Council believes that normally the identification of young people as mentally disabled or wards of the State is undesirable, but hard and fast rules in such matters are extremely difficult to lay down.

There may be circumstances which justify the identification of the mentally disabled or wards of the State, but newspapers should consider carefully the reasons for publication and the possible consequences; every consideration should be given to the privacy of the wards themselves, their parents and relatives, and those who look after them.
 

Also on disability reporting: GPR 18.

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