Newspapers = Crime?

Everyone knows that newspapers have always been a place to read about and report crime, but could they also be a cause?

In England's Press Gazette, Paul Macey has posed the question: Do newspapers support the underground sex trade?

His concern comes from advertisements that have been placed in newspapers in England and elsewhere advertising massage services that seem to go several steps beyond therapeutic touching. What's more, these kinds of services are usually a front for sex businesses that abuse women and even young girls. Some of these businesses even advertise the many races of women that they have available, which is highly suggestive of illegal activity. This is no small matter, seeing as 4,000 women and children are trafficked illegally every year into the UK alone. A special interest group, The Croydon Community Against Trafficking, reports that 80% of women working in brothels or in other sexual service businesses have been illegally brought into the country. CCAT also found that most of the men who frequent these businesses find out about them through their local newspapers.

Many have voiced their outrage over this matter and are especially irate since newspapers are there to be a part of the solution --not the problem. The Poppy Project, a group devoted to providing help to trafficked women, has voiced concern over the ethics of newspapers and why they are not checking who they're advertising. Newspaper staff have shot back that they do not check all of their advertising clients, and should not be called to do so for all massage parlours or sensual services.

Most newspapers follow the guidelines of the Committee of Advertising Practice which have codes that attempt to protect against the type of advertising being disputed, but in the end, it is the publishers and editors who have the final say, and they must be relied on to make the right decision.