AIDS Assassins”: Australian Media's Portrayal of HIV-Positive Refugees Who Deliberately Infect Others

This is the published version McKay, Fiona H., Thomas, Samantha L., Holland, Kate, Blood, R. Warwick and Kneebone, Susan 2011, AIDS assassins : Australian media’s portrayal of HIV-positive refugees who deliberately infect others, Journal of immigration and refugee studies, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 20-37. Available from Deakin Research Online http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30056717 Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright owner Copyright: 2011, Taylor and Francis

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“AIDS Assassins”: Australian Media'sPortrayal of HIV-Positive Refugees WhoDeliberately Infect OthersFiona H. McKay a , Samantha L. Thomas b , Kate Holland c , R.Warwick Blood c & Susan Kneebone da Primary Care Research Unit, School of Primary Health Care, Facultyof Medicine , Monash University , Notting Hill, Australiab Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business and Economics ,Monash University , Melbourne, Australiac Faculty of Arts & Design, University of Canberra , AustralianCapital Territory, Australia and the Australian Health News ResearchCollaborationd Faculty of Law , Monash University , Melbourne, AustraliaPublished online: 24 Feb 2011.

To cite this article: Fiona H. McKay , Samantha L. Thomas , Kate Holland , R. Warwick Blood &Susan Kneebone (2011) “AIDS Assassins”: Australian Media's Portrayal of HIV-Positive RefugeesWho Deliberately Infect Others, Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 9:1, 20-37, DOI:10.1080/15562948.2011.547824

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Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 9:20–37, 2011Copyright © Crown copyrightISSN: 1556-2948 print / 1556-2956 onlineDOI: 10.1080/15562948.2011.547824

“AIDS Assassins”: Australian Media’s Portrayalof HIV-Positive Refugees Who Deliberately

Infect Others

FIONA H. McKAYPrimary Care Research Unit, School of Primary Health Care, Faculty of Medicine,

Monash University, Notting Hill, Australia

SAMANTHA L. THOMASDepartment of Marketing, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University,

Melbourne, Australia

KATE HOLLAND and R. WARWICK BLOODFaculty of Arts & Design, University of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

and the Australian Health News Research Collaboration

SUSAN KNEEBONEFaculty of Law, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

The media representations of refugees who are HIV-positive oftenrevolve around criminal transmission cases. This study examinesthe approach the Australian mass media have taken toward thecase of two men from refugee backgrounds and how this stigma-tizing language is unhelpful in discussions of HIV. An extensivesearch of the Factiva database was undertaken for all newspaperarticles in the major dailies that mentioned “HIV,” “AIDS,” and“refugee” between 2002 and 2008. Analysis was guided by severalapproaches to media analysis in an attempt to understand the rep-resentations of HIV-positive refugees. When analyzing the mediaarticles of criminal cases relating to HIV we found that refugeeswho are HIV-positive were portrayed in a negative fashion, withthe concept of “otherness” prominent throughout most newspapermedia reports. Considering this is the main source of informa-tion for most people concerning HIV, this representation carries the

Address correspondence to Fiona H. McKay, PhD student, Primary Care Research Unit,School of Primary Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, Monash University, Bldg. 1, 270 FerntreeGully Rd., Notting Hill, VIC 3168, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]

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Media Representations of “AIDS Assassins” 21

potential to lead to further stigma and discrimination to both peopleliving with HIV and refugees.

KEYWORDS HIV, media representations, refugee, risk, stigma

INTRODUCTION

When compared to many other developed countries, Australia has success-fully managed its HIV epidemic. This is largely a result of the partnershipbetween governmental and nongovernmental bodies, health professionals,and the communities affected. In the 1980s, the Australian media also playeda role in the HIV epidemic by disseminating information about the virus andproviding airtime for social marketing initiatives. However, the media alsoprovided space for sensationalist fear campaigns that stigmatized and dis-criminated specific groups. By the mid 1990s, when the predicted widespreadHIV epidemic did not materialize in Australia, mainstream media interestsurrounding the domestic epidemic receded and attention turned to the in-creasing HIV epidemic in Africa (Bermudez-Tamayo, Martin, Ruiz-Perez, &Olry de Labry Lima, 2008; Suhrcke, Nugent, Stuckler, & Rocco, 2006). Thisleft a space for the community-based media outlets that target specific groupswithin the community to play a larger role in the dissemination of HIV in-formation and education.

Although the practical and medical aspects of HIV are no longer widelyreported in the mainstream media, HIV’s association with behaviors thatare considered to be deviant and threatening to the social order—such ashomosexuality, prostitution, and illicit drug use—continue to attract mediaattention. This can be seen particularly in the news media’s reporting of thecriminal cases of HIV transmission.

Since the beginning of the epidemic, there have been 18 criminal casesbrought against people who have deliberately infected others with HIV inAustralia. The two cases that have received the most individual media at-tention are those that involved refugees of African origin who deliberatelyinfected women with HIV. These represent the only HIV criminal cases fromAustralia that involve men who are of non-Anglo-Saxon background. Thisspecific attention toward African men is reminiscent of the homophobic na-ture of reporting of homosexual men with HIV in the early days of theepidemic; that is, attention directed at the “other.”

While refugee issues, whether or not they are linked to HIV, are a con-tentious topic for media debate in both Australia (McKay, Thomas, & Blood,in press) and in other countries (Worth, 2001), traditional media reportingof refugee issues has largely focused on the politics of refugee arrivals.However, the debate has recently shifted towards the social and health con-sequences associated with refugee settlement. For example, Persson and

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22 F. H. McKay et al.

Newman’s (2008) broad discussion of media reporting of HIV-related crimein Australia found that when criminal intent to deliberately infect mergedwith individuals of African origins, racism is often expressed in the re-porting. Building on this research, we look more specifically at what hap-pens in media reporting when these two highly politicized and stigmatizedissues—deliberate infecting behavior and refugees in Australia—converge.Gaps in the previous research relating to this convergence have led usto question: How do the media report issues about refugees who delib-erately infect others with HIV? Are messages about the “risk” and “threat”that refugees pose to the Australian community amplified by linking them toirresponsible and potentially deadly sexual behavior? And, do the media re-inforce perceptions that those who deliberately infect others with HIV are de-viant but those who are infected are always innocent and powerless victims?

BACKGROUND

HIV Reporting in the Australian Media

In line with dominant news values and the reporting of risk informa-tion, news media reporting about HIV generally increases for World AIDSDay, vaccine trials, celebrity infection stories, and HIV-related criminal trials(Albert, 1986; Crimp, 1992; Kitzinger, 1999; Lupton, 1994). As with otherstigmatized health issues reported in the news media (i.e., drug use,cigarette smoking, obesity), a personal responsibility framework surroundsthe method by which people have been infected with HIV, leading to apublic debate that surrounds the right to medical care and morality issuesassociated with the virus and the method of infection. This personal respon-sibility framework suggests that both those who have the disease and thosewho do not engage in responsible health behaviors to prevent the spread ofthe disease (i.e., wearing condoms or not sharing needles; Minkler, 1999).While the issue of personal responsibility for health behavior has existedthroughout the HIV epidemic, it is particularly apparent in the news mediareporting of people living with HIV who are located outside the parame-ters of normal heterosexual behaviors. This includes gay men, injecting drugusers, and sex workers, with an increased focus in the last decade on in-dividuals who have not revealed their HIV status to their partners or whohave deliberately sought to infect others, often referred to as “AIDS crimi-nals.” While HIV currently receives a low profile in the media, this attentionon AIDS criminals and the resulting discriminatory reporting is unhelpful inreducing stigma and providing the general public with a clear understandingof the risks and scope of HIV.

News media interest in deliberate infecting behavior in Australia peakedin 2007 with the case of Michael Neal, a Victorian man who openly admittedhis “campaign” to intentionally infect others (men) with HIV. The news

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media reporting was particularly sensationalist as Neal stood trial on 106charges including deliberately spreading HIV and attempting to spread a“lethal disease,” and came to national attention due to the reluctance of theVictorian Department of Human Services to inform the police of his behaviorbecause of concerns relating to his medical privacy. Rather, the departmenttried to manage and change his behavior through counseling, education, andsupport. This case attracted significant attention as Neal was found guilty of15 charges and sentenced to 18 years jail for his behavior. The case also gaverise to the firing of the chief Victorian medical officer, Robert Hall, and gaverise to the Victorian health minister, Bronwyn Pike, shifting to the educationportfolio.

Australian Media Reporting of Refugees

Like the issues surrounding HIV, refugees receive mixed media reporting.While some refugees are brought to Australia under the resettlement pro-gram as part of Australia’s humanitarian intake, spontaneous asylum-seekerswho arrive outside of Australia’s planned intake excite moral outrage andpanic as a result of their supposed “queue jumping.” Additionally, suchasylum-seekers are often associated with “people smuggling” and are there-fore characterized as “illegal immigrants” (O’Doherty, 2007). These individ-uals are often labeled by the media, and in public discourse, as asylum-seekers, boatpeople, and illegals, with the general public and media oftenusing the terms interchangeably with refugees. However, a significant differ-ence in international and domestic policy and law between these terms exists(Goodwin-Gill, 2007). This article will use the term refugee when discussingthe men involved in the case, as they arrived through Australia’s plannedhumanitarian intake.

In order to understand the way in which the media have reported thesecases, it is important to understand the broader social and cultural context ofmedia reporting of refugees in Australia. Media debates concerning refugeesin Australia have, in general, been premised on the belief that Australiais experiencing a “refugee problem.” Pickering (2001) suggests that whenrefugees arrive in Australia, the refugee problem label applied by the mediais shaped by the theme of deviance (Pickering, 2001). Public and media de-bate surrounding refugee issues was especially heightened during 2000 and2001, with sustained media coverage of asylum-seekers arriving by boat ap-pearing in the media almost daily. Since this time, media reporting has beencharacterized by hysteria and panic directed at the supposed queue jumping,deviance, and illegality of the asylum seekers. Further, reporting has fixatedon the means of arrival rather than the need for protection (Stani, 2000).

Preliminary evidence suggests that the arrival of asylum-seekers andrefugees has acquired a powerful discourse in the media, political forums,

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and in public opinion in Australia (McKay et al., in press). This researchfollowed the media reporting over a 5-day period of an incident involving aboat carrying asylum-seekers that exploded off the Australian coast. Throughan analysis of the articles that appeared in the printed version of selectedpapers, the online content of the same papers, and readers’ comments fromthe same paper’s online forum, this study showed that asylum-seekers whoarrive by boat attract sensationalist reporting and are presented in a highlystigmatized manner by the media, with expert opinion and personal storiesonly rarely introduced into the discourse of refugee-related issues.

The Convergence of HIV and Perceptions of Refugee “Risk”

While there is a great deal of research that focuses on the media reportingof refugee representations in the Australian context (Gale, 2004; O’Doherty,2007), and a large body of work that focuses on the media reporting of HIVin Australia (Lupton, 1994; Persson & Newman, 2008), there is little researchthat is focused on the media reporting of the convergence of these two highlystigmatized groups in Australia. This article explores these issues through anexamination of the media’s reporting of the court cases of two HIV-positiverefugee men from African countries.

The first is that of Stanislas Kanengele-Yondjo who arrived in Australia in1993 as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 1999, a medicalcenter contacted him after a woman tested positive for HIV and believed hehad infected her. He was confirmed HIV-positive and was counseled on hisillness and obligations. In 2003, he had relationships with two women, whoboth subsequently became infected with HIV. In 2005 he was charged withgrievous bodily harm for knowingly infecting two people with the HIV virusand received a sentence of 12 years in jail. The second case is that of LamKuoth, a refugee from Sudan. Kuoth arrived in Australia in May 2006 andwas diagnosed with HIV in October 2006. He was charged, and pled guiltyto two counts of HIV-exposure (to the same woman) and received a 3-yearsuspended sentence. The woman was not infected with the virus.

METHOD

Approach

We identified print articles published from 2004–2008 in Australia’s leadingdaily newspapers: the Sydney Morning Herald (circulation 211,900 week-days; 355,750 Saturday), the Daily Telegraph (circulation 392,000 weekdays;340,000 Saturday), The Australian (circulation 138,765 weekdays; 316,194weekend), The Age (circulation 204,200 weekdays; 296,750 Saturday), andthe Herald Sun (circulation 518,000 weekdays; 515,000 Saturday). The time

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period allowed for the collection of articles directly reporting on both crim-inal cases. The newspapers selected include both tabloid and broadsheetpress and the national newspaper. The newspaper items were retrievedusing the Factiva news database. Search terms were: “HIV and Refugee,”“AIDS and Refugee,” and “Criminal and HIV.”

Conceptual Framework

We were guided by three key theoretical concepts—refugee labeling, moralpanic, and stigma. In his early work, Zetter argued that the labeling ofrefugees—including stereotyping, conformity, designation, identity disaggre-gation, and political or power relationships—discursively support and repro-duce discrimination against refugees who are already stereotyped, marginal-ized, and disempowered due to their circumstances (Zetter, 1991). Alienationand anxiety are both common reactions to refugees in this situation since theyare perceived as the “other” in society (Zetter, Griffiths, & Sigona, 2006). Pub-lic concern regarding immigration can be heightened through many channelsincluding political discussion, ambiguous or hostile discourse within the me-dia surrounding refugees and illegal asylum-seekers, the ascendancy of farright political parties, policies that detain asylum seekers, and discourse sur-rounding illegal immigrants. Each of these channels has the potential to fuelanxieties surrounding immigration and the impact of immigration on na-tional identity, security, employment, education, and public services (Craig,2003; Griffiths, Sigona, & Zetter, 2005; Runnymede Trust, 2005). In recentwork, Zetter (2007) argued that the “refugee” label has become politicizedby the reproduction of institutional fractioning and by embedding the widerpolitical discourse of resistance to immigrants and refugees.

Building on Cohen and Young’s (1973) seminal study, Goode and Ben-Yehuda’s (1994) work on moral panics and the media also inform this study.They listed five criteria for moral panic: concern, hostility, consensus, dis-proportionality, and volatility. These concepts link with the politicization ofrisk of both refugees and HIV. Finally, we use the work of Link and Phelan(2006) who stated that inherent in stigmatizing behavior is the concept ofpower, which links individuals to undesirable characteristics and separatesthem from those considered normal, whereby “people are labelled, set apart,and linked to undesirable characteristics, while a rationale is constructed fordevaluing, rejecting, and excluding them” (Link & Phelan, 2006, p. 370–371).

News Framing

News framing is an important determinant in the construction of socialproblems. Framing theory recognizes the important role of news frames in

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alerting audiences to certain explanations and courses of actions at the ex-pense of others. In this sense, frames can be seen as having a considerableinfluence on the way in which audiences understand and respond to is-sues and events. Scheufele (2000) identified five factors that may influencehow journalists frame an issue: social norms and values, organizational pres-sures and constraints, pressures of interest groups, journalistic routines, andthe ideological or political orientations of journalists. Lexical choices madeby journalists and the “designators” they use to label actors or events ina story are also an important aspect of news discourse, and are powerfulcues that signify an underlying frame (Pan & Kosicki, 1993). These newsframes and lexical choices enable journalists to process and package largeamounts of information into more understandable bites, while also represent-ing the professional routines and conventions of journalism (Pan & Kosicki,1993).

Analysis

For each individual article we explored the central role of news framesin reporting the criminal case. In particular, our framing analysis helpedus to elaborate on how the media packaged the information and how therefugees were subsequently portrayed and represented through the variousstakeholder perspectives in the debates that ensued. Data was analyzedcontinuously throughout the study using a constant comparative method,by reading and rereading transcripts, coding and identifying themes, sortingdata to ensure that the concepts where appropriate, and noting differencesbetween different groups of individuals, as well as the type of language andmetaphors used.

RESULTS

General Characteristics

We identified 22 articles on the cases of Kuoth and Kanengele-Yondjo. Thearticles were mostly news articles that reported on the events at the trials.There was only one editorial and this focused on the perceived light sentencegiven to Kanengele-Yondjo. The case involving Kuoth took place in theAustralian state of Victoria and the local tabloid paper, the Herald Sun,ran eight articles, while the local broadsheet, The Age, ran four. The caseinvolving Kanengele-Yondjo took place in New South Wales and the localtabloid, the Daily Telegraph, ran three articles, while the broadsheet, theSydney Morning Herald, ran four articles. At the national level, The Australianran one article on the case of Kanengele-Yondjo and two on the case ofKuoth.

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Interpreting the Headlines

Headlines are one of the most powerful framing devices in news stories.One of the most interesting aspects of this research is the way in which theheadlines conveyed a sense of morality, while exaggerating the threat thatboth the individual and HIV pose to the general public. This was achievedthrough the use of the terms HIV man (n = 10, 45%), HIV migrant (orrefugee; (n = 3, 14%), AIDS assassin (n = 1, 5%), and HIV predator (n =1, 5%) in the headlines as designators to label the individual involved (seeFigure 1). In terms of news framing, these lexical choices are powerful cuesthat signify an underlying frame that serves to stigmatize. In these stories,the terms became more than simply a descriptor for a category of illness;rather, they prompt the reader to view the individual as a risk or a threat tothe rest of society. The range of descriptors used in both the headlines andthe articles show the variety of media representations of people with HIV,sliding from the infected individual as an innocent victim and an object ofpity—to the infecting individual who is a guilty assassin and an object ofcontempt, fear, and scorn.

When analyzing the headlines, frames evoking fear, shame, and embar-rassment were more prominent in the tabloid papers (see Figure 1), howeverthe headlines and leads of both the broadsheets and the tabloids focused onthree key metaphors: evil, justice, and power.

METAPHORS OF EVIL

The “evil” metaphor was used to describe the character of those who infectedothers with HIV, in this context HIV is used as a metaphor for a “sinful”or evil act, and as a punishment for a perceived moral transgression. Theevil metaphor was used with constant reference to the individual’s refugeebackground, thereby reminding the reader of the subjects “otherness.” Thismetaphor served to reinforce the social norm of stigma by defining thedeviance of those involved.

JUSTICE METAPHORS

The second metaphor used in the headlines by both the broadsheets and thetabloids highlighted the “unjust” nature of the small custodial sentences thatthe perpetrators received, when compared to the “life sentences” that theyimposed on the victims. While these representations of the women may bean accurate reflection of their response to the sentencing, the use of thisemotion-victim frame serves to further portray the men as perpetrators withan evil motive, when compared to the innocent women. This was particularlytrue in the Daily Telegraph where the court reporter, Vita Goldner (2005b),

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“Predators” and “Assassin” • HIV man granted bail (Herald Sun, 6/27/2007) • This man gave two women life sentences. Yesterday he was sentenced to jail ... Nine years for

AIDS assassin (Daily Telegraph, 12/2/2005) • HIV man guilty of unsafe sex may avoid jail (Herald Sun, 20/06/2008)

Evil Metaphor • Jail for giving women HIV (Sydney Morning Herald, 12/2/2005) • HIV predator’s appeal falls on deaf ears (Sydney Morning Herald, 11/17/2006) • Sentenced to death—Now she waits to hear the punishment for the lover who condemned her

(Daily Telegraph, 11/11/2005)

Life Sentence Metaphor • This man gave two women life sentences. Yesterday he was sentenced to jail ... Nine years for

AIDS assassin (Daily Telegraph, 12/2/2005) • Sentenced to death—Now she waits to hear the punishment for the lover who condemned her

(Daily Telegraph, 11/11/2005) • Penalty for reckless sex ‘inadequate’ (The Australian, 12/4/2007) • HIV man out on bail despite sex risk (The Age, 06/27/2007) • HIV man guilty of unsafe sex may avoid jail (Herald Sun, 6/20/2008)

Predatory Nature • HIV-positive man had sex with girls, court hears (The Age, 6/26/2007)

Refugee Background • Refugees ‘must face HIV tests’ Sex charges prompt calls by minister (Herald Sun, 7/1/2007) • Migrant ‘infected women’ with HIV (The Australian, 12/1/2007) • HIV positive visitors may be tracked or banned (The Age, 5/11/2007)

Crime and Punishment • 12 years jail for infection with HIV (The Australian, 12/2/2005) • The man gave two women life sentences. Yesterday he was sentenced to jail ... Nine years for

AIDS assassin, (Daily Telegraph, 12/2/2005) • Jail for giving women HIV (Sydney Morning Herald, 12/2/2005) • Freedom too harsh (Herald Sun 8/23/2008) • No jail for unprotected HIV sex (Herald Sun, 06/28/2008) • HIV man guilty of unsafe sex may avoid jail (Herald Sun 6/20/2008)

Power, Stigma and Deviance • Sentenced to death—Now she waits to here the punishment for the lover who condemned her

(Daily Telegraph, 11/11/2005) • HIV man guilty of unsafe sex may avoid jail (Herald Sun, 6/20/2008)

Otherness and exclusion • Refugees ‘must face HIV tests’ Sex charge prompt call by Minister (Herald Sun 7/1/2007) • Migrant ‘infected women’ with HIV (The Australian, 12/1/2007)

FIGURE 1 Headlines.

states, “he [Kanengele-Yondjo] imposed a life sentence on two women . . .

but the man dubbed the AIDS assassin could be out of jail in nine years.”In addition, the victims were often represented as being upset with thesmall sentence; and judges were portrayed as being frustrated with the limitsimposed on them, that the sentences were inadequate.

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METAPHORS OF POWER: HIV PREDATORS

In a similar vein to the media reporting of the Michael Neal case, wherethe focus was directed on the predatory nature of Neal as he deliberatelyinfected others with HIV, the power dynamics between the men and youngerwomen represented in the reporting of these cases, was a major focus ofmany of the headlines and leads in the newspapers. One striking exampleis an article from the Herald Sun, “Court told HIV-positive man pesteredteens, women tell of sex risk” (Anderson, 2007), where the power dynamicframe was illustrated through the statement, “one alleged victim told DHS thathe roamed streets to ask girls for sex.” Many of the articles frequently describethe women as “young,” “teenage girls,” or “backpackers” who found theman “quite charming.” While these descriptors may be accurate reflectionsof those involved, their use serves to promote sympathy for the victim bystressing the women’s status as young, and reinforcing that the perpetratordeliberately targeted young or vulnerable women.

Highlighting Refugee Risks: The Concept of “Otherness”

Another feature of both the headlines and text of the articles was how themetaphors and descriptors were used to highlight the refugee background ofthe men, introducing a racial component into the discussion. While severalheadlines mentioned their migrant or refugee background (see Figure 1), thetext of the articles consistently mentioned either the visa status, or the countryof birth, further highlighting the otherness of the accused. This otherness isconsistent with moral panic theory, whereby this “othering” creates hostilitytoward the group (i.e., African refugees) who are engaging in the riskybehavior, and therefore allows society (in this case the media) to apply thestereotyped behavior to the rest of the group (i.e., all African men), andthereby limiting any alternative frame that might be used in these cases.

A majority of articles (n = 16, 73%) stated that Kuoth and Kanengele-Yondjo were from refugee or migrant backgrounds. The articles focusedon the original countries of the men, highlighting their status as either ahumanitarian visa holder or refugee. While information about the men’scountries of origin was not specifically discussed, the articles frequentlypresented the fact that the individuals were from African countries. Kuoth, inparticular, was commonly referred to as an “HIV positive Sudanese refugee,”“Sudanese born,” or “HIV positive migrant” therefore connecting the ideasof “refugeeness” and “Africanness” with the criminal nature of the crime thatwas being reported.

Other than identifying Kuoth’s refugee background, no other possiblecauses for his inability to understand the nature of his infection were re-ported. One article suggested he may be, “suffering from post-traumaticstress disorder from his experiences in war-torn Sudan,” (Hadfield, 2008) but

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parts of the trial involving expert opinion about cultural aspects of infect-ing behavior or expert opinion relating to refugees were excluded from thearticles.

The refugee background of Kanengele-Yondjo was regularly mentionedin reporting on his case. He was frequently described as a “refugee from theDemocratic Republic of Congo who knowingly infected two young womenwith HIV.” David King from The Australian stated that Kanengele-Yondjo“knew that he was HIV positive when he seduced” and infected the twowomen, who now “face a lifetime of physical and mental illnesses and theprospect of early death” (King, 2005, p. 7). King further incited moral panicand otherness by suggesting that Kanengele-Yondjo lied by reassuring thewomen that he was not HIV-positive: “he told her that he had private health[insurance] and was regularly tested for HIV.” Again, this single frame of HIV-positive evil refugee does not allow for any alternative framing or discussionof the complexities of the individuals involved.

Power, Stigma, and Deviance

As already mentioned, the articles predominately discuss the women infectedby Kuoth and Kanengele-Yondjo as innocent victims deceived by men theytrusted. In both cases the women were described as innocent because theyreported not knowing that the accused was HIV-positive, and therefore as-sumed that he was HIV-negative. While the details of the women involvedin the cases remained confidential through the use of aliases, details of theirpersonal situations were publically available to view and add context andinsight into their lives. Information to note is, the two women involved in theKanengele-Yondjo case were each in short relationships with the accusedand were described as German and Irish tourists on working holidays inAustralia. The woman in the Kuoth case, on the other hand, was describedas being his pregnant partner.

The women’s voices are often included (Goldner, 2005b; Jacobsen,2005) where they are invariably portrayed as victims and described as “un-witting,” while the men are described by the women as “quite charming.”The women’s experiences are also given voice by their lawyer and the judgeswho detail the effects of HIV on the women who were infected “with indif-ference to human life or suffering” (Lamont, 2006). The men, on the otherhand, were often quoted in the papers as reassuring the women that, “Iwould never do anything to hurt you,” “I don’t have anything,” and “I gettested all the time” (Roach, 2005). One of the women infected by Kanengele-Yondjo returned to Australia from Ireland to be present for the sentencing.She stated she was “expecting him to be brought to justice finally for this evilact” (Goldner, 2005a). This victim told reporters that “no matter how muchknowledge and understanding people have there is always some element of

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fear . . . my educated sister won’t put her toothbrush near mine (Goldner,2005a).

Crime and Punishment

Because of the legal nature of the stories most of the articles were framedaround the criminality of transmitting HIV and the resulting legal ramifi-cations. This was illustrated most prominently in articles focusing on thechange in the charge against Kanengele-Yondjo from one of “grievous bod-ily disease” to “maliciously infecting grievous bodily harm” (Wallace, 2005).Several articles claim that the change was made as it was too difficult for theprosecuting legal team to prove the more serious charge. Nonetheless, thearticles went on to quote the magistrate that the dropping of the grievousbodily harm disease charge was “rather disconcerting when you have abrief overview of the facts . . . where it would appear that the defendantwas aware that he suffers from the HIV virus [sic].” In an article from theSydney Morning Herald, “HIV suspect refused bail,” (Kennedy, 2004) thejudge was extensively quoted in relation to the safety of the community,“no conditions that I could impose upon you will ensure that you will notreoffend,” suggesting that despite the legal framework he is required to use,he believed the crime to be so severe, and the accused so untrustworthy,that there was no other way that he could ensure the safety of the publicexcept by refusing bail. While handing down the sentence in the case ofKanengele-Yondjo, the acting district court judge, Warwick Andrews, said:“to have subjected innocent persons to your own horror demonstrates apoverty of spirit and a moral bankruptcy that beggar’s belief” and that thecrime was “heinous, contemptible, and callous.” This moral outrage sur-rounding the nature of the sentence in relation to the severity of the crimewas repeated in the two major Sydney papers (Goldner, 2005b; Jacobsen,2005) and the national paper (King, 2005), each including the quote fromacting district court judge Andrews. The effect of representing the judge asoutraged, and constrained by the legal structure, suggests that even withoutany insight into the men’s motivations for their behaviors, they are immutablydamaged, and not fit for public release. This is despite the fact that at thetime this was the toughest sentence ever handed down in Australia for sucha crime.

In the case of Kuoth, the articles were framed around the suspended sen-tence he was given. This led to several articles that discussed the adequacyof the sentencing and Kuoth’s time spent in the secure Thomas Embling Psy-chiatric facility. These articles paid particular attention to the nature of thecrime and the “insufficient” punishment he received when compared to the“life sentence” that his victims are now serving, and that his “freedom” wasgiven too easily. These reports occurred despite the defense, the prosecution,

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and the judge sharing the opinion that a community based order would bethe “most appropriate sentence in the case” (Hadfield, 2008).

Crimes and Government Policy

The case of Kuoth was also tied closely with the Victorian health minister,Bronwyn Pike, who was repeatedly quoted as calling for mandatory HIV testsfor all immigrants and more “stringent” and “compulsory” communicabledisease testing for all immigrants (Hinde, 2007). The repetitive publication ofthese comments from the health minister served to reintroduce an additionalracial component to the discussion by highlighting how the notion of thethreat of illness from someone with a different origin is never far from thesurface in these cases resulting in “calls for tighter security procedures.”Several articles made the link between the increased HIV rates in Victoriaand immigrants moving into the state, with the Herald Sun stating that Kuoth“is one of nine known HIV-positive immigrants to move to Victoria in thepast year” (Hinde, 2007). This is presented as being in the interest of thehealth of the nation’s people and was part of a larger discussion surroundingimmigration and health checks discussed at the time, with suggestions that“the nature of the offending goes to the heart of significant public healthprevention issues.” This construction of disease sees refugees as a deadlyand costly problem, and one that threatens the life of the host society,particularly women, with their deadly diseases and deviant behaviors.

DISCUSSION

Using the ideas of Gamson and Modigliani (1989) to identify the mediaframes that guide the media representation of an issue, this research foundthat the refugees in the HIV criminal cases were framed in three terms; theirrisk to women, their devious nature, and their “refugeeness.”

The risk to women frame was used in ways similar to that of othercriminal HIV cases, where the women were given a direct voice: “he hastaken my life, my happiness, my strength, and my easiness” (Goldner, 2005b),while the men were quoted only from court transcripts, or not at all. Despitethe introduction of a third voice, that of the judges, this frame served onlyto suggest that these men could never fully rehabilitate. The devious framewas used by the media to reinforce perceptions that deliberate infectingbehavior is deviant and violates cultural norms, thereby strengthening theargument that those infected are innocent victims. The refugee frame wasused by almost all articles in order to attract attention to the otherness ofthose involved, and served to reinforce the notion of the deviance associatedwith the criminal act, HIV, and with refugees. These frames echo Australia’s

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long held fear of both refugees and HIV as potential dangers to the healthof the nation, a fear reflected in Australia’s tough immigration policies. Theframes identified in this research are consistent with the frames used inthe media representations of refugees in Australia as both “dangerous” and“threatening” (O’Doherty, 2007).

Issues surrounding immigrants and refugees are contentious, and assuch it is recognized that these, and the issues surrounding HIV, are difficultfor the public to fully understand (Lewis, 2005). However, it is also clearfrom this research that journalists find the presentation of these contentiousand emotional issues difficult and, therefore, are forced to rely on ingrainedroutines and established conventions of journalism in order to present thematerial. Future research needs to consider how journalists may negotiatethis balance, either through the establishment of new frames or through abroadening of those currently in use.

A notable finding of this research was that when the two stigmatizedgroups (refugees and people living with HIV) converge the result is thecreation of a highly stigmatized population that attracts sensationalist andunbalanced media coverage. As such, the already stigmatized group ofrefugees now also become potential sexual criminals. This association iscreated through the use of identifiers that link the men to their Africanhomelands, and their refugee status, resulting in a broadening of the “risky”label and amplifying the messages about the risk and threat that all refugeespose to the Australian community. The resulting stigma, often described asthe “identification of a bad or negative characteristic, in a person or group ofpersons, and treating them as not deserving of respect or less worthy thanothers’ leads to an ‘exercise of power over people’“ (Gilmore & Somerville,1994) and a means of societal control through the marginalization of thisgroup from the broader community. In this case, the two men are excludedfrom the wider society because of the perceived evilness or the deviance ofthe acts they committed.

These media portrayals of HIV are important, as given that the widerpopulation are not targeted by HIV prevention and education campaigns, themainstream media are likely to be a significant source of information aboutHIV and HIV risks (Persson & Newman, 2008). Media discourse surroundingHIV has seen a clear shift toward reporting of risky individuals and groups,and associating HIV with risky behaviors (Newman & Persson, 2009). Inreporting on individuals who are defined as HIV risks (HIV-positive refugees,in this case) the media use their influence to shift public interest away fromthe reality of HIV and those infected toward the border issues of “riskyrefugees” and African men. This shift reinforces the stigma already associatedwith HIV (Dodds & Keogh, 2006), the stigma and discrimination associatedwith refugees (Pittaway & Bartolomei, 2001) and further incites moral panicin the reading public. In addition to the categorization or labeling of the twomen as risky refugees, the selective and sensationalist reporting of the risk

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by the media with limited expert assessment of these risks, has the potentialto play a significant role in stimulating concern about the threats associatedwith other groups. The media’s development of the moral panic surroundingthese men further amplifies any notion of risk that may associate refugeeswith a potential disease or risky behavior (Cottle, 1998; Kitzinger & Reilly,1997). This results in a group that is stereotyped then further stigmatized,and ultimately pushed to the borders of society (Malcolm et al., 1998).

A final point that also came out of this research is the broad discussionsurrounding the justification of criminalization of HIV transmission and itsrelationship to public health in Australia. Much of the discussion surroundingthese cases related to the debate surrounding the criminalization of HIV thatstems from the public health implications of using a law to criminalize dis-ease transmission. Those who advocate for the criminalization of the sexualtransmission of HIV rely on the argument that the application of criminallaw will reduce onward transmission by rendering the individual unable toexpose others to the virus and deterring those who are HIV-positive fromengaging in high risk behaviors (Dodds, Weatherburn, Hickson, Keogh, &Nutland, 2005). Those who argue against criminalization have long made thecase that responses to HIV are most effective when they prioritize the rightsand dignity of people who have been diagnosed with HIV (or are at riskof infection; Cameron, Burris, & Clayton, 2008). They also argue that the in-troduction of laws that criminalize HIV transmission compound HIV-relatedstigma by portraying the image of the HIV-positive person as always on theverge of engaging in criminal acts. Criminalizing HIV undermines the publichealth emphasis on the mutual responsibility of both partners to prevent HIVinfection (Worth, Patton, & Goldstein, 2005). In addition, criminalization ofthe virus results in the individuals being devalued, rejected, and excludedfrom mainstream society, increasing stigma, and thereby producing and re-producing the notions of deviance and otherness. Australia’s move towardcriminalization of HIV and prosecuting those who have exposed or trans-mitted HIV to others is inconsistent with the public health framework that ispromoted.

CONCLUSION

Like most Western countries, Australia has adopted both a human rights andpublic health approach to guide policy responses to HIV. The sensationalisttabloid print media as well as the so-called “quality” broadsheets play a cen-tral role in creating the negative discourse surrounding both refugees andHIV. This study found that reporting of cases relating to criminal transmis-sion of HIV portrays the refugees who were accused with these crimes aswell as their countries of origin in a negative fashion framing them as dan-gerous and deviant individuals. The stories covered by the newspapers were

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newsworthy and provided important public debate to the questions sur-rounding the legal responses to HIV transmission. However, the reportingwas largely news-based, and rather than providing insight or opinion, thereporters relied on as-told-to narrative and court transcripts. This form ofreporting limited the extent to which emotional and complex cases, such asthose presented in this article, can be discussed and understood. Most im-portantly, a result of this approach to reporting means that any opportunityto educate or inform the general public, who are not targeted by specific HIVcampaigns, is lost and the only message conveyed is the deviant associationbetween HIV and African men.

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Documents

AIDS Assassins”: Australian Media's Portrayal of HIV-Positive Refugees Who Deliberately Infect Others