A MEDIA ENTREPENEUR
This
man is the sub-editor of the local newspaper, The XXXXXX Journal. He is in
charge of all of the journalists and photographers, and answers only to the
editor, who was unable to conduct this interview himself for reasons unbeknown
to myself. He has been in XXXXXX for about a year, which is not ideal for
this study, but he has worked in a lot of other towns and so will be able to
compare this towns problems with others.
DO YOU THINK THERE IS A MORAL PANIC SURROUNDING THE ISSUE OF HEROIN ABUSE?
“Well if there is a moral panic then that is the way society is going. We only do the publications. With due respect to your research I think the public may say that there is a panic, but it doesn’t depend on whether we put articles in the journal or not. We obviously report the majority of stories from court cases and I think that if there is a problem, it is not only in XXXXXXX – but across the country as a whole.
DO YOU FEEL THAT THERE IS A DRUG PROBLEM?
From what I have seen, obviously being at the sharp end of it as far as reporting goes, I have worked in other towns and cities and to me there doesn’t seem to be a bigger problem in this town compared with other places such as XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXX. The number of people who end up in court as a result of heroin use has remained roughly about the same over the years.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SCHEMATIC MODEL THAT I SHOWED YOU, THAT SHOWS A DRAMATIC INCREASE IN HEROIN RELATED ARTICLES, ESPECIALLY OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS?
I'm not sure it has dramatically risen, it may have gone up but I think it has remained largely, I think, on a level playing field.
(The model I showed him suggested otherwise, but he
refused to comment on it)
WHY DO YOU THINK MANY PEOPLE TURN TO HEROIN?
That’s quite a tough one, but personally I think there are a number of reasons. . .Economics, where people live. . But then again it happens in all parts of the country, in all parts of society, so I mean it has nothing to do with the paper. Personally I also think peer pressure and being in the wrong place at the wrong time are also important.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE MAIN CAUSES IN THE RISE OF
HEROIN ABUSE?
I
can answer that generally. My opinion on that would perhaps be that I think
people are more affluent nowadays and have more time on their hands, which lets
face it, with drugs is necessary. And if you really want to find them they are
not that hard to find.
ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THE RISE, BOTH PROFESSIONALLY AND PERSONALLY?
Yes, I mean personally I wouldn’t want to have drugs all round where I live. It probably goes on, I don’t know. But I mean it can’t be good for people because of the stories we’ve done and it destroys people lives.
HAS IT AFFECTED YOU ON A PERSONAL LEVEL THEN?
No not on a personal level, but in the job I am in we see cases all the time and how it has affected the people involved. For example it is not in our area, but in Bourne (a town close to XXXXXXXX) just this week there was this kid whose been sent down for 10 years for torturing his sister. He was just the ‘average Joe’ you know, and then apparently he got mixed up in drugs and he heard voices in his head to hurt his sister. He was given his 10 years on Wednesday-so its thing like that which affect our lives.
MANY OF YOUR ARTICLES CAST HEROIN USERS IN A NEGATIVE
LIGHT. DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS STATEMENT?
By the very nature of someone taking heroin I think it is hard to put it in a positive light. If someone’s in court we are quite restricted in what we can write, we have to stick within the legal framework and if that’s perceived as negative then yes, it possibly could be. But at the same time we have done articles, certainly since I have been here, that have been positive. We had one on a person whose a heroin addict, he’s actually gone through the stage of getting off it and he’s going to rehab and his mum called us to run the story.
THAT IS ONLY ONE ISOLATED INCIDENT THOUGH?
I'm sure there are more
but I haven’t been here that long.
MANY OF YOUR ARTICLES SEEM TO TARGET THE EARLSFIELD
ESTATE AS THE ‘PROBLEM AREA.’ DO YOU AGREE?
I think as far as crime goes it could tend to point to that area. I don’t think we label it an area that’s bad. I think that people are trying to work on it with things like the drug rehab schemes and what have you. There is possibly a problem there, and we report that. It is not for us to say that it is a particularly bad area, if things happen on there we have to ultimately report it.
OKAY, SO WHY HAVN’T OTHER AREAS BEEN TARGETED. WOULD
YOU LABEL ALMA PARK A CRIMINAL ESTATE IF PROBLEMS OCCURED?
It depends – if someone came forward and said its absolute hell up here, it’s a heroin hell, then we would I'm sure, run the story. Just as we would with any other part of town.
UPON REVIEWING THE JOURNAL I FOUND NO ARTICLES THAT
PRESENTED THE HEROIN SITUATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE USER. WOULD YOU
AGREE WITH THIS?
Certainly in my time there has been one article going through the treatments available, and eventually going to rehab and implants. A second anonymous one which we covered which was from the perspective of having a user son.
BUT THESE ARE SELECT INCIDENTS, THERE ARE NOT MANY
COUNTER ARGUMENTS YOU CAN USE?
True. But lets face it if you are a heroin addict or you’ve got one whose a son or daughter are you going to come to your local paper to have your name, address and picture in their, saying ‘my sons an addict.’ Ultimately I think we have shown through articles what damage it can do, but if people can afford to judge it on its merits and someone comes forward and has a story to tell then we’ll take it form there – good or bad, without fear or favour.
SO YOU WOULD CONSIDER RUNNING STORIES FROM THE VIEWS
OF THE ADDICT?
Yes, and we have.
WOULDN’T YOU AGREE THAT THE PUBLIC ONLY HAS HALF AN
INSIGHT INTO HEROIN ADDICTION, BASED ON THE LIMITED SCOPE YOU COVER?
Yeah. Not to go ever the ground we have already covered. . .certainly the article on page 3 showed what damage can be done, and as I said earlier we have stories from the views of the family, the user and the courts etc. . . .
SO ON THAT BASIS YOU CAN CLAIM THAT YOUR PAPER
‘REPORTS ALL NEWS, GOOD OR BAD, WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR’?
Yes, I think we can.
DO THE POLICE HAVE ENOUGH RESOURCES TO TACKLE THE
HEROIN EPIDEMIC?
Personally I think that they see it as a very serious crime-as far as drugs are concerned. We can run stories to say that they are making efforts to tackle it. I mean, apparently they have got a new drug offender scheme where those that are on drugs can see a drugs councilor straight away. As far as what the Journal thinks-it’s the town newspaper so we cover various stories as they come in, so perhaps the Journal wouldn’t think, or would like to think.
IN 1994/5 MANY ARTICLES PORTRAYED THE POLICE TO BE
UNDERFUNDED AND UNDERSTAFFED. IS THAT THE CASE NOW?
As far as that goes we have had quite a few stories actually about police, about the Lincolnshire police who had been boosted by this cash, and as a result XXXXXXX police had got a slice of the cake. So XXXXXXXX got more police officers as a result. But what they would say is probably what I would say as well, that you can never have enough resources. You could always have more, which would be better.
WOULD YOU SAY THAT THE LAW REPRESENTS THE INTERESTS
OF SOCIETY, OR THOSE THAT MAKE THEM?
To look at and cover every single law that covers every single crime would take too long. However, I wouldn’t say that everything is ‘hunky dory’ there is probably room for improvement, but by and large I think that we have got it fairly good. I mean, I don’t think we can ever have it perfect, but I think that, like the judge and jury system is as good as any.
DOES THE PAPER THINK THAT HEROIN ADDICTS SHOULD BE
PUNISHED AND STIGMATIZED BY SOCIETY, OR HELPED AND TREATED?
I think that if they want to be helped then efforts should be made to give them some help, if they, for example – look at the story we did, the guy who had implants to stop him feeling the effects of drugs, he wanted to get off it, but he couldn’t. He needed the help, but it isn’t there, it isn’t on the NHS-his mum had to pay for it, privately and its not cheap. So it should be there if people want to help themselves.
SO WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO REFORM YOUR AVERAGE HEROIN
ADDICT?
That is quite a hard question for me to answer because I don’t know personally the ins and outs of heroin addiction. I mean we all know that we’ve heard of cold turkey and all that business, but how do you go about treating someone who is addicted to heroin.
HOW COULD THE HEROIN PROBLEM BE REMEDIED?
Again not being a drug expert I think there are a number of things that can be done. You take the dealers out, then you stop it on the street. . . but then there's Mr Big who runs the whole operation.
BUT IF YOU TAKE THE DEALERS OUT, THERE ARE ALWAYS
MORE TO REPLACE THEM. . . .
Well exactly. So you’ve got to go right to the very top, and they are the people that are never touched by the law. How you go about tackling that, I have no idea.
WOULDN’T YOU SAY THAT THE LOCAL PAPER HAS
SENSATIONALIZED, EXAGERATED AND DISTORTED THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HEROIN PROBLEM IN
THIS TOWN?
As far as sensationalising stories goes. . .we cover most things on drugs from court cases and we can’t put anything in their that isn’t said in court. As for other stories, I think that if a heroin addict is in the park, or a kid finds a syringe, to me that’s quite a major issue-I mean a syringe found by a primary school kid. . .
BUT DON’T YOU THINK THAT ARTICLES WITH THOSE SORTS OF
HEADLINES LABELS ALL HEROIN USERS AS PEOPLE WHO LEAVE DIRTY SYRINGES IN PARKS?
I think what it shows is that this sort of thing is happening, and to ignore that or not to print a story saying it has been found is to ignore the issue.
YES BUT IT MAKES THE PUBLIC THINK THAT ALL HEROIN
USERS USE NEEDLES, AND DISCARD THEM ANYWHERE.
If needles are found, what can we do? Do we ignore it and say people might think this, I think that’s worse because we then pretend that it has not happened. We have to cover the story and say. . Look this is happening, what are we going to do about it? Talk to the police, the council, drugs teams-but if we decide not to run a story on it we are just choosing to ignore it.
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