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Anonymity and the media

Announcement posted by BPR Ltd 14 Jul 2015

A request from the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous New Zealand

To managing editors; news reporters and photo directors; radio and television editors and producers; television talk show hosts; bloggers and online hosts of social media forums

Alcoholics Anonymous New Zealand seeks your continued support by presenting AA members:

only by first name

using no recognisable picture and

without identifying them by a unique set of events or circumstances

Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of our Fellowship and assures our members that their recovery will be private. Often, the active alcoholic will avoid any source of help, which might reveal his or her identity.

Some of our members and some media representatives may be unfamiliar with our tradition of personal anonymity at the media level.

The public relations policy of Alcoholics Anonymous is based on attraction rather than promotion. We need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press radio and films.

Therefore we respectfully ask that no AA member be identified by full name or photograph in published, broadcast or online reports.

We also alert members of Alcoholics Anonymous who wish to share their experiences with the media, that they "share in a general way" that cannot identify them from unique events or circumstances in their life.

Throughout the world, favourable media coverage has been a principal means of bringing alcoholics into our Fellowship. You have helped make this possible, and for that we thank you.

Alcoholics Anonymous is not affiliated with any other organisation, although many have adapted AA's Twelve Steps for their own use. AA is self-supporting, declining any outside contributions; and we are non-professional, offering only the voluntary support of one alcoholic helping another.

www.aa.org.nz