The Denver Post
Tiff over naming Bryant accuser puts end to blog
Sunday, September 19, 2004 -
Geneva Overholser, a journalism educator and former newspaper editor, discontinued her Web log for the Poynter Institute on Friday after her editors declined to let her identify the woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape.
Overholser's short column, "Time To Name the Accuser," argued that the woman's name should be used in media accounts after she filed a civil suit against the NBA star in Denver federal court. Overholser wrote that the woman's decision to file the suit was a "voluntary step further into the public limelight." But where she used the woman's name, Poynter editors inserted "(Name withheld by editors)." The lawsuit, filed by Bryant's accuser Aug. 10, seeks unspecified damages for pain, suffering and "public scorn, hatred and ridicule." Three weeks after it was filed, the sexual-assault charge against Bryant was dropped when prosecutors said the woman did not want to participate in the criminal trial. Poynter, a St. Petersburg, Fla., journalism education center, removed the woman's name from the blog because of uncertainty about whether posting the name would harm the woman, said Bill Mitchell, editor of Poynter Online. "We also don't know what potential harm could come to other or future accusers," he said. Overholser, a former editor of The Des Moines Register who teaches public affairs journalism at the University of Missouri School of Journalism program in Washington, D.C., is a longtime advocate of identifying alleged victims by name in media reports on sexual crimes. "My strong feeling is that we in the media are doing something unprincipled when we decide we know which of two people in a criminal case (needs) to be protected," she said in an interview. She said withholding accusers' names hinders reporting on sexual assaults by removing much of the human element from the story. The practice offers only limited protection to an accuser anyway because the name is often circulated on the Internet or broadcast by "shock jocks," Overholser said. "This was a moment when I thought I should practice what I preach," she said. While at the Register, Overholser was a central figure in the paper's Pulitzer Prize- winning series that graphically recounted a rape victim's ordeal. In the 1990 series, an Iowa woman agreed to make her identity and ordeal public. Overholser said she decided to drop the blog, which she had done weekly without pay, because it was no longer a place where she could say what she wanted. She said she had no hard feelings. "I admire Bill; I admire Poynter. I have been involved with Poynter for years and will continue to be," she said. Mitchell characterized the parting as a professional disagreement. "We regret that, because we really respect her thoughtfulness not only on this but on other issues," he said. |