
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 18, 1991                   TAG: 9104180184
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily News
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

RAPE ACCUSER NAMED IN MEDIA

A woman who was raped and left for dead in New York was dubbed "the Central Park jogger" by the media, but the media gave no such moniker to the woman who has accused a Kennedy family member of rape. Some news organizations have published the woman's photograph and identified her.

Counselors at rape-crisis centers have followed the case with concern. They said they feared publication of victims' names could discourage further the reporting of rapes. Added Fred Klink, a Los Angeles deputy district attorney for sex crimes:

"There would be some women who wouldn't go forward with prosecution because of that. Some people guilty of committing rapes would get off totally scot-free."

It already is difficult for rape victims to come forward because they fear further retribution from their assailant and public disapproval, said Cynthia Meekins, a coordinator for the YWCA's sexual assault crisis program in Compton.

"I think you have to take into consideration that for any woman who has been sexually abused, her body has been violated, her privacy already has been denied," Meekins said. "By publishing her name in a newspaper or wherever, publicly you deny her privacy again. You also risk her being abused or hurt or violated again."

Rape counselors said the decision to publish a name should be left to the sexual assault victim and not the media, which traditionally has respected privacy in rape cases. (The Roanoke Times & World-News, for instance, does not identify victims of sex crimes.)

"We don't feel names of rape victims should be published unless [victims] agree to have them published," said Marybeth Roden, assistant director of the Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica Hospital. "Journalists have traditionally adhered to the ethics of the profession."

In one case, a rape victim agreed to let the Des Moines (Iowa) Register publish her name and picture in a story that won a 1991 Pulitzer Prize. By telling her story, the woman hoped to discourage the notion that somehow the victim is at fault. Roden said she has no problems with rape victims who consent to identification.

"Sometimes it could be healing to come forward and tell her story when she's ready, if she chooses," Roden said.

But in the Kennedy case, the woman's name was published without her consent, most likely because of the high-profile nature of the investigation, local rape counselors said.

by CNB