Introduction

This chapter examines the role of the media in the context of the implementation of the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act (PRA), policy that was developed to protect the human rights of sex workers and minimise the amount of harm incurred by their occupation. As highlighted in previous chapters, the PRA indicated a shift in policy, from a moralistic to a public health and human rights approach. This chapter considers whether the media coverage of the PRA reinforced existing moral discourses of sex work, or developed new discourses in this new policy context. It does this through a content analysis of print media reporting on the PRA, exploring messages communicated in and by print media in New Zealand between 2003 and 2006, and qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 58 sex workers about their experiences of the media coverage surrounding the PRA. The chapter highlights how, although most print media was descriptive and neutral, the print media did draw on dominant moral discourses of sex work. Print media reporting that did draw on moral discourses was particularly acknowledged by sex workers and described as reinforcing existing stigmatisation surrounding sex work. A key feature of this chapter is to recognise and describe how sex worker participants resisted dominant discourses in their everyday practices.