Reporting on Rape Victims

To be sure, reporting on rape victims is one of the touchiest ethical issues in journalism. Society has always seemed to attach a certain stigma to sexual assault victims, a stigma that has unfortunately deterred several rape victims from reporting the incident to law enforcement. A lot of this has to do with news organizations inadvertently identifying them in a story. For example, Gretchen Howard told our class her story of being raped in her apartment during her time as a UF undergraduate. Even though she wasn’t identified by name, the story gave away enough that Howard feared her attacker would come back and assault her again. There are countless analysts and journalism ethicists who have expounded upon the best way to report on rape, and there has never been an agreed upon consensus. Of course, the big question here: should a rape victim be identified, whether by name or inadvertently though some other characteristic? I believe journalists should always allow rape victims the choice of being identified.

I have heard of journalists who have blindly identified rape victims merely after getting a “yes” from the victim in question. Even if the rape victim isn’t a minor and expressively gives a reporter permission to identify them in a story he or she is writing, the reporter shouldn’t go ahead and publish the victim’s name based on that permission alone. It would be important to examine some other issues, like finding out how much crisis counseling the victim received before deciding to go public. It would also be important to know if he or she had obtained professional mental help in dealing with their trauma. It would be crucial to get a sense of just how much guidance he or she received that allowed them to make such an important decision. If it isn’t clear that the victim gave extensive thought to whether or not to give his or her name, I don’t think it would be ethical to go ahead and use it in a story.

Stories about rape touch on the most upsetting and difficult aspects of people’s personal lives. As journalists, we have a duty to determine exactly how vulnerable these individuals are and write our stories accordingly. Rape stories shouldn’t be treated with flippancy. Although we may move on after writing a story about a rape, those affected to it surely won’t. They will always remember the tragedy and be deeply connected to it. It’s therefore important to exercise care and caution when writing about sexual assault victims. Reporters shouldn’t stop their questioning and analyzing as soon as they’ve gotten that “yes” from a rape victim.