More News Orgs. Give Name

Several more news organizations yesterday named the woman who said she was raped by a Kennedy family member, fanning a debate about publishing the identities of sexual-assault victims.

Among those who followed NBC News and The New York Times in identifying the woman were the Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. and the Reuters news agency.

Among the most vocal critics were those who said disclosure would disclosure women from reporting rapes by having their identities revealed.

"If you want to reduce the number of those who come forth and report rapes to the authorities, just start publishing and broadcasting their names and addresses. That'll do it," said Anne Seymour, spokesperson for the National Victim Center.

Editors also anguished over the propriety of naming the suspect, William Kennedy Smith, the nephew of U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 (D-Mass.), with-out identifying the accuser. Police identified Smith as the suspect several days after the Easter weekend incident. He has not been charged, but an investigation continues.

"All editors have the same dilemma," said Frank Daniels III, executive editor of The News and Observer in Raleigh, N.C., which withheld the woman's name. "By naming the defendant, you've now said someone is an alleged rapist without naming who's saying that."

Some of those who identified the woman said her privacy was no longer an issue because others had used it.

"After a lot of discussion, we decided to use the name in an extraordinary case that had been reported nationwide," said Heath Meriwether, executive editor of the Detroit Free Press.

"We felt we should give our readers as much information as we had to enable them to sort out a complicated situation. And the issue of privacy was moot, after broad-cast of her name by NBC and publication in The New York Times," Meriwether said.

Robert Crooke, spokesperson for Reuters in New York, said the woman's name was carried Wednesday on the agency's news wires.

"Once her identity had become common and public knowledge, we decided to publish it," Crooke said. He said Reuters would not change its traditional policy of not identifying rape victims.

The Palm Beach County, Fla., state attorney yesterday asked a judge to rule on whether he can prosecute news organizations who print or broadcast the woman's name. Florida law bars identifying a sexual offense victim in the news media.

In response, The New York Times issued a statement.

"Reasonable people may differ with our decision, and indeed other publications have. However, we believe that the decision of whether truthful information should be published must be made by editors, and not by the government," the statement said.

"We are confident that the court will determine that any attempt to apply Florida's statute to the publication of accurate facts about a matter of public importance is plainly unconstitutional."

NBC said it was "confident that its editorial decision to air the name of the rape victim is consistent with the protections afforded by the Constitution."

NBC News broadcast the woman's name and picture Tuesday, a day after it had appeared in The Globe, a supermarket tabloid. Michael Gartner, president of NBC News, defended the decision, which NBC officials said was agreed to by anchor Tom Brokaw.

"I hope this has no negative impact on this woman's life, but my first real duty is to inform my viewers," Gartner said.

Gartner is a former president and editor of The Des Moines (Iowa) Register and The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky. Both papers published the woman's name Wednesday.

NBC had received about 200 calls as of Wednesday night objecting to the broadcast, according to spokesperson Peggy Hubble. She said the network does not have a formal policy on identifying rape victims.

"Rape is rarely an issue for us. The decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. This was a long and difficult discussion," she said.

Appearing on ABC's "Nightline" Wednesday night, Gartner twice mentioned the victim's last name. ABC's policy is not to identify rape victims, said spokesperson Laura Wessner, but the network does not censor the views of those who appear on its live news shows.

The Associated Press has not disclosed the woman's name. The news agency's policy is to refrain from identifying rape victims, except in extraordinary circumstances.

Public opinion appeared to be on the side of shielding rape victims by not disclosing their names, and about 15 members of the Guardian Angels, a self-styled group of crime fighters who patrol urban areas, marched yesterday in front of NBC and The New York Times.

The group carried signs that read: "Gartner: Your Name Will Carry The Shame" and "NBC and New York Times: Integrity For Sale."

Of 1000 people questioned for a survey commissioned by the National Victim Center and released yesterday, 79 percent said they support laws barring the names and addresses of sexual assault victims from being printed or broadcast.

A USA Today survey released Wednesday showed 60 percent believe victims should decide whether they are identified and 31 percent said the name should never be made public. Six percent said no consent was necessary.

The New York Daily News conducted its own unscientific survey, asking readers with a front page headline "Was NBC Right?" By placing calls that cost 75 cents each, 1276 callers, or 79 percent, said no; 345, or 21 percent, said yes.

The issue was so charged it prompted disagreement among women's activists.

Karen DeCrow, a lawyer and former president of the National Organization for Women, wrote in USA Today that identifying rape victims would help end sexist stereotyping.

"We should not relinquish our names or identities for the misguided protectionism that has always kept us from full citizenship," she said.

But Marybeth Carter, president of the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault, firmly disagreed with publicizing rape victims names.

"I challenge the theory that printing the victims' names in the paper removes the stigma," Carter said.

And Susan Estrich, professor of law at the University of Southern California, said involuntary disclosure would keep rape victims from coming forward. She was a rape victim and wrote about her experience in the book Real Rape.

"The humiliation being heaped on this particular woman has been unfair to her and is just the sort of thing that discourages other women from coming forward," she said.

Benjamin C. Bradlee, executive editor of The Washington Post, said his newspaper's policy is not to print names.

"We have our little square inch of principle and we are standing on it," Bradlee said.

Iain Calder, editor of the National Enquirer, said it has withheld the woman's name. "We took the high ground, and The New York Times took the low ground."