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Allegations of Sexual
Abuse in NZ |
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A New Plymouth court report (July
29) on the acquittal of a young man on a rape charge seems unfair. The man is
named and perhaps shamed; the girl, whose evidence was questionable and,
according to the defence lawyer, "extremely emotional when she was drunk",
is not named. Unless defence lawyers win
suppression for their clients, names are automatically made available and
published. It would be a dangerous trend if newspapers were to decide on what
names to suppress. Nor can newspapers publish the names of alleged victims,
irrespective of the evidence or trial result. EDITOR
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