Associated Press drops the I- word from style guide
You may be seeing fewer news sources refer to immigrants as illegal in the upcoming weeks.
After increased pressure from organizations such as the Drop the I-Word campaign, the Associated Press (AP) announced yesterday that they would discontinue their use of the word illegal to refer to immigrants in the United States without the paperwork indicating official citizenship.
Colorlines; a daily news site covering race, culture, and organizing;and its publisher, the Applied Research Center (ARC), launched the Drop the I-Word campaign in 2010 as a public education campaign that challenges various media outlets to stop referring to immigrants as illegal, which the leaders behind the campaign say is a racially charged slur that fuels violence, according to the Colorlines website.
The new entry, to be immediately added to the AP Stylebook Online as well as the Spanish-language stylebook, states that the phrase illegal is only to be used to refer to an action, not a person.For example, illegal immigration would be acceptable, but not illegal immigrant, except in direct quotes essential to the story, the AP website states.
This proves a big victory for the campaign because print and broadcast journalists around the world use the AP Stylebook as a primary writing style guide for the purpose of consistency of all writers and editors.
Its great to see the Associated Press stand up for responsible journalistic standards. The style guide is the last word on journalistic practice so its particularly important for the AP to set this standard, said Rinku Sen, the executive director of the ARC and publisher of Colorlines, said.
In October of last year, the AP defended its use of illegal, by noting that it is more accurate than undocumented, or unauthorized, choices that are preferred by the Drop the I-Word Campaign. According to a newsletter by Deputy Manager and Editor of Standards and Production, Tom Kent, the usage of terms other than illegal hid the essential fact that such people are here in violation of the law.
Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll attributes the decision to eliminate the phrase illegal immigrant from their stylebook to the ever-changing English language.
Changing is a part of the AP Style because the English language is constantly evolving, enriched by new words, phrases, and uses, she wrote on the APs blog. Our goal always is to use the most precise and accurate words so that the meaning is clear to any reader anywhere.
Since the Drop the I-Word campaign launched, media outlets such as NBC, ABC, CNN, Univision, and Fox News Latino, have pledged to stop referring to people as illegal in their news coverage.
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Associated Press drops the I- word from style guide