Media toolkit on PHL drug reporting launched

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

A guide for media practitioners on how to report on drugs was launched by policy reform advocates on Friday, aiming to change the landscape of how drugs, dangerous or not, are being reported across all forms of media across the country.

The 24-page ‘Putting Persons First: Drug Reporting and the Media’ guidebook includes existing reporting traditions on illegal drugs, harm reduction, harmful language, interviewing persons whose lives include drugs, handling of buy-busts, arrests, and searches, body cameras, and diversifying “talking heads”.

It was developed by advocates in collaboration with journalists as a practical guide for reporters. It reveals that common terms used by media practitioners such as ‘adik’ or addict, ‘durugista’, and ‘drug abuser’ as stigmatizing and harmful language.

“This media toolkit aims to help journalists report news about drugs, drug policy reform, and criminal justice issues. We are also highlighting the ethical issues in covering stories about people whose lives involve drugs and how the media practitioner’s conduct impacts narratives,” its preface stated.

“Moreover, we aim to aid journalists in reporting through the lens of harm reduction. Most of the principles mentioned here are not foreign to journalists, but the examples and contexts stipulated in this toolkit aim to avoid further stigmatization and dehumanization of people whose lives include drugs,” it added.

Lawyer Kristine Mendoza, lead convenor of the Drug Policy Reform Initiative (DPRI), which developed the toolkit, said that this toolkit was written in the ‘harm reduction’ lens, “an approach to drug use that shuns stigma, discrimination, and coercion.”

“It is important to highlight that drug use does not define a person. Contrary to popular narrative, evidence shows that the majority of people who use drugs do so in a non-problematic manner and do no harm to self and others,” said Mendoza.

DPRI consultant Nick Tobia developed a media scan of media stories on drugs, which found that only 2.79 percent of the stories scanned framed drugs as a health issue, while 44.27 percent framed it as law enforcement, and 25 percent framed as responsibility to address drugs.

The DPRI is a network of advocates pushing for open and humane society that secures the rights and welfare of persons whose lives include drugs.

As a coalition of groups, the DPRI includes the Institute for Politics and Governance, Streetlaw PH, NoBox Transitions Foundation, IDUCARE, and the Asian Society of Community Rehabilitation Practitioners.