Florida court overturns victims' privacy law

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Dec 1, 1991 by Susan Hovey

Many news organizations breathed a sigh of relief recently when Florida Judge Robert V. Parker overturned an 80-year-old state law that prohibited publication of rape victims' names. The court ruled that the state had no grounds for bringing criminal charges against the Globe-the Boca Raton, Florida-based weekly tabloid that named the woman who has accused William Kennedy Smith of sexually assaulting her. The state however, is appealing the decision.

Still, the larger matter of balancing First Amendment rights and crime victims' right to privacy remains unsettled. Media-law observers lauded Judge Parker's decision, noting that courts are likely to uphold the right of the media to disclose information already available in police reports or court dockets. "The idea of a court punishing the Globe after the fact would have been ludicrous, " says Everette Dennis, executive director of The Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University.

However, one question that remains is whether the press will continue its traditional self-restraint in naming names. In an attempt to avoid a conflict between the rights of the press and the rights of victims, the New York State Legislature last summer passed a bill requiring that sex-offense records containing the name of the accuser remain confidential. Furthermore, the statute gives the accuser the right to bring civil charges against public officials found to have leaked the accuser's name.

This move may have been related to the current "anti-leaker emotion" stemming from Washington, adds Slade Metcalf, a New York-based media-law specialist. "I think we'll see more legislatures, maybe even Congress, moving in the direction of trying to restrain public officials from revealing this kind of information."