Adjudication No. 662 (August 1993) [1993] APC 54

ADJUDICATION No. 662 (August 1993)

In dismissing a complaint lodged by Mr Mannie de Saxe, of Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, against the Sydney Morning Herald's use of the word "victim" in an editorial, "Scientific truth and AIDS" on 5 January 1993, the Press Council is subscribing to a general view that there is no need to ban a word accurately used and commonly understood.

The editorial related that Dr Robert Gallo, the American co-discoverer of the cause of AIDS had grown the virus from samples taken "from the body of an AIDS victim".

Mr de Saxe complains "the Sydney Morning Herald has been told, by phone, letters, faxes, that people living with HIV/AIDS are not 'victims' as common usage of that word has come to have connotations of 'innocence or guilt'" and that this editorial context of the word reflects the newspaper's "discriminatory attitude".

The Sydney Morning Herald responds that "it is crystal clear from the context that the writer's reference to AIDS 'victims' drew no distinction whatever between the various means by which those people might have acquired the disease". It argues that "It surely is just as reasonable to hold that all people with AIDS are victims of the disease as it is to say that all suffer from it".

Against the charge of displaying a discriminatory attitude, the newspaper states it has long recognized the sensitivity of the AIDS issue and that the way its journalists report and comment has changed with the community. The gradual learning process for the press and the community has not yet finished and the Herald Style Book, published last year, has been revised to read:

"AIDS: be careful how you refer to people who suffer from the virus. They should not be tagged victims and we should be wary of the phrase 'innocent victims' as this makes a judgment on other sufferers".

This directive is binding on all staff, and, although the newspaper concedes that in this instance the better word would have been 'sufferer' and that the editorialist would be so reminded, the Press Council views this use of the word in the sense that anyone suffering the fatal consequences of a disease is a victim. It was a neutral, not a pejorative, use of the word.