As a student newspaper, those of us working for the Technician are learning on a daily basis how to produce a publication. Without a journalism school, we learn most of what we do on the job or in the few classes that are offered. We get critiqued daily, from a number of sources, both for the good and bad content we produce.
This week we experienced the classroom in our office, downtown at city hall and in between as we covered the men’s tennis player’s sexual assault case.
Our reporters went out and covered the story, but the dilemma came when we had secured a copy of the police report with the victim’s name on it.
Discussion among Technician leaders began on what we should print, what should be left out and where in the print edition the story should go.
Technician‘s Code of Ethics states we do not print the names of sexual assault victims. But to the knowledge of the current staff, the only times this rule has ever come up was in rape cases on a female.
This week’s incident shed a new light on our code, but we stuck with it, choosing not to reveal the name.
It is our belief that there was no point in tarnishing the victim’s name and making a humiliating circumstance even worse. We do not think we are doing our readers a disservice by withholding the name.
The publishing of the information pertaining to the case on our Web site drew a lot of discussion. While I love seeing our articles light up with thoughts from our readers, I had to put a stop to some of the online discussion Tuesday night.
Many of the comments were inappropriate and seemed as though they were for someone’s personal blogs to slander those involved in the case. A variety of opinions are welcomed and encouraged on our boards, but just as in our Campus Forum in Technician‘s print edition, foul language cannot be published.
The Web site of any newspaper, student-run or professional, should be ethically treated in the same way as its print edition. It’s an issue the newspaper industry is dealing with as the way news is consumed is drastically changing.
We promise to keep you up to date as to what’s going on with this sexual assault case. But newspapers around the country learned a lesson in covering sex crimes with last year’s Duke lacrosse case, and we’re going to follow that lead.
We’re excited by the number of you who have been posting on our site. It has reached numbers we’ve never had before. But with that comes a level of responsibility that we both have to share.
We at the newspaper have to do a better job of providing you with content you are interested in and want to discuss, and you must post in a way that represents a newspaper’s readership.
What are your thoughts on the way the Technician has covered and dealt with the recent men’s tennis sexual assault story and the proceeding comments? E-mail viewpoint@technicianonline.com with your comments.