What Norwegian 10 leading newspapers wrote about psychiatry was systematically examined during the first half year of 1991. Of 265 contributions 79% showed a positive or neutral attitude towards psychiatry. The number of contributions varied considerably between newspapers. Most of the articles (72%) were written by journalists; mental health professionals had produced only 8%. Negative contributions were written mainly by organized anti-psychiatric circles, and primarily attacked biological psychiatric treatment. Otherwise, the articles on psychiatry in the papers in general were without prejudices and show a satisfactory level of knowledge about psychiatry.