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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 21, 1995                   TAG: 9502210069
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

THE RULES ON RACE

We do not identify race or ethnic background unless the information is relevant. It may be so:

a. in stories involving politics, social action, social conditions, achievement and other matters where race can be a distinguishing factor;

b. where usage has sanctioned the description: black leader, Irish tenor, Polish wedding;

c. in reporting an incident that cannot be satisfactorily explained without reference to race. However, the mere fact that an incident involves persons of different races does not, of itself, mean that racial tags should be used. And when racial identification is used, the races of all involved should be mentioned.

We do not mention a person's race in describing criminal suspects or fugitives unless the rest of the description is detailed enough to be meaningful. Sketchy descriptions are often meaningless and may apply to large numbers of innocent persons.