Student newspaper in gun over drug rape article
Title -- 3789 NZ: Student newspaper in gun over drug rape article
Date -- 10 October 2002
Byline -- Dita De Boni
Origin -- Pacific Media Watch
Source -- New Zealand Herald, 10/10/2
Copyright -- NZH
Status -- Unabridged
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PAPER IN GUN OVER DRUG RAPE ARTICLE
by Dita De Boni
AUCKLAND (NZ Herald/Pacific Media Watch): Police are investigating a complaint about a drug-rape article in the Auckland University student newspaper Craccum, reports the New Zealand Herald.
The article, entitled "Craccum rates the rape drugs: a guide to getting a quality lay for the old, the ugly, the poor and the uncool", was published on 16 September 2002, shortly after the university's week-long Womensfest celebrations.
After receiving a written complaint this week, the police issued a statement yesterday condemning the article and calling it something that "trivialise[ed] drug rape and its effects".
Detective Inspector Bruce Shadbolt said that while the article was "probably just another Craccum stunt we are concerned that the article condones drug rape.
"It treats the crime as a legitimate way of obtaining sex and never at any stage suggests that it is a crime".
Police spokeswoman Andi Brotherston told the Herald that it was unlikely the police would charge Craccum editor Colin Mitchell for publishing the article, although there might be something in it that could expose him to criminal charges "if we specifically looked for it".
If a drug rape perpetrator could be proven to have used the Craccum article as a basis for his crime, a charge could be brought of "aiding and abetting and counselling on how to commit a crime" and the editor could serve the same amount of time as the rapist - a maximum of 20 years.
However, it would be very difficult to prove, she said, and, again, unlikely.
Instead, the police had used the article as a chance to once more warn the public about drug rape, the basis of an increasing number of complaints to police.
As with other articles published in Craccum on subjects such as how to rob banks, how to crack secure websites, how to make bombs and how to make pure speed, says Mitchell, the article provides a reader-friendly warning to potential victims of the crime.
He says key feminists and student politicians - who decided against withdrawing the newspaper from circulation - had been media savvy enough to see the drug rape article as a "thinly disguised warning to students on how to protect themselves from drug rape".
He has received no complaints about it.
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