Drugs, players and the public interest
As a budding young journalist in the final throes of the most intense year of my life at Cardiff Journalism School, I was invited for an interview at a local newspaper in west Wales. Towards the end of the interview the editor in question proceeded to outline the pitfalls of the job and there was one thing he said which has stayed with me for the past decade.
"If you get this job, prepare for people to f*****g hate you but always remember you are doing a public service."
There wasn't exactly much tact in his delivery but his point was valid and has been imprinted on my brain ever since. For those of you who are curious, I was offered the job that very night but after a long weekend of umming and ahhing, I decided to turn it down because my eyes were set in a different direction.
Nevertheless, that one succinct line is something I've carried with me from my time as a trainee reporter at the South Wales Evening Post, writing for the nationals at Westgate Sports Agency and now as rugby correspondent at WalesOnline.
As a journalist, the backlash from certain stories with your byline on can really test your mettle - "but always remember you are doing a public service." As long as the information is accurate, balanced and you have given both sides a right of reply then your conscience is clear.
On Friday, we published the story of a Llanelli Wanderers player who has received a three-year ban after testing positive for a high level of testosterone in his system, inserted into the body as an anabolic androgenic steroid. These stories pose a moral dilemma because of the reputational damage it can potentially cause the person in question, who is only an amateur player.
That was the tone of some of the critical messages sent my way this week, with a few claiming the media is wrong to name players in such circumstances.
While we can all feel sympathy for any young person who finds themselves receiving unwanted headlines because of a mistake they more than likely now regret, there are two important points to make.
The first is that it is not actually the media who name these players. It is UK Anti-Doping, who publish full details of every case online when a player is found to have broken the rules. You can read their media release here.
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