Sexual assault has become ever present in current news. As the importance of covering sexual assault grows in America, issues of privacy in these cases have become a part of the conversation.
There aren’t many things that are culturally taboo as sex, and therefore, in sexual assault cases there are loads of privacy issues. One big issue is what do with the name of the alleged victim.
Most media companies have decided that they should never print the name of sexual assault victims. The National Institute for Ending Sexual Violence believes that reporting names of sexual assault victims could have an adverse affect on people reporting to authorities when they get assaulted (Naming Victims in the Media.).
Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes, and the National Institute for Ending Sexual Violence believes it is from a fear of public scrutiny if their name was released (Naming Victims in the Media.).
That is not the only opinion on the matter though.
Jami Floyd at WNYC.com compltely disagrees. She thinks that not releasing the names adds further stigma to both the alleged victim and the alleged offender. If we don’t name the victim’s name it can be viewed as an admission that he or she is already a victim, before the case even gets to court. To Floyd, this seems like a contradiction to the “innocent until proven guilty” court system we have (Floyd).
Also, Floyd thinks the added stigma on the accuser is a negative to protecting his or her identity. According to Floyd, not reporting sexual assault victim’s names just adds to the stigma that an alleged victims should be ashamed of what happened (Floyd).
Another issue is what do you do when a crime turns from a non-sexual offense to a sexual offense. If the names of the victims have already been published, do you keep on publishing them? Or, since the nature of the crime, do you stop on reporting their names?
Bob Steele at the Poynter Institute doesn’t believe that you should keep on reporting them. He believes that even though their names are already out, newsrooms should reexamine the case once the nature of the case changes (Steele).
As you can tell, there are lots of issues with privacy when it comes to reporting on sexual assault. I believe that at the end of the day the reporter’s duty to the accuser is higher than the reporter’s duty to the accused or the public’s right to know.
References
Floyd, J. (2011, August 22). Opinion: The Media Should Stop Shielding Names of Rape Victims. Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://www.wnyc.org/story/153984-whats-name-accuser-strauss-kahn-case-answer-power/
Naming Victims in the Media. (n.d.). Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://endsexualviolence.org/where-we-stand/naming-victims-in-the-media
Steele, B. (2002, August 10). Naming Rape Victims. Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://www.poynter.org/2002/naming-rape-victims/1655/
Andrew Bay 