juvenile's names

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Fri, 1 May 1998 23:34:19 -0400, EricNH@webtv.net (Eric Jacobs) said:

> year old arrested for something-or-other, and mentioned his name. Is it
> permissible to broadcast/print the name of a juvenile?

Depends on the jurisdiction.  In some localities, officers of the
court are required to keep juvenile defendants' names secret.
However, a secret, once broken, is no longer a secret, and there is
nothing preventing journalists from repeating any information they
know.  (UNLESS they learned it by listening to police scanners -- it
is illegal to broadcast [or indeed recount in any way] information
obtained by listening to non-broadcast radio signals.  In such a case,
they must get confirmation from a source not subject to the ECPA.)
Beyond that, it's a matter of editorial judgment.  Unless there is a
compelling reason to do otherwise, I would expect a good journalist to
keep juvenile offenders' known-to-them identities secret or not by
following whatever the local legal tradition is.

Of course, different standard apply in other countries.  I heard on
the CBC last weekend that the Solicitor General of Ontario resigned
his cabinet post after his government's throne speech named the mother
of a juvenile offender---something which is illegal under Ontario law,
and which he as his government's chief legal advisor should have
prevented.  There have been situations in the past where Canadian
broadcasters have been enjoined by their courts from broadcasting the
names of juveniles even when said names were well-known by reportage
in the US media.

- -GAWollman

- --
Garrett A. Wollman   | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same
wollman@lcs.mit.edu  | O Siem / The fires of freedom 
Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame
MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA|                     - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick

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