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Meanwhile, over at Whale HQ
By Steven | January 14, 2010
Mr Oil has an odd post calling attention to the discrepancy between the “liberal crim huggers” (does that include the people who support him, one wonders?) who point out that many name suppressions exist to protect victims, including one of the ones he’s alleged to have breached, and this case:
An Auckland methodist minister has been charged with a sex offence against a teenage youth.
Kenneth Smith appeared in Rotorua District Court this morning accused of indecently assaulting the 17-year-old boy at a motel on January 10.
Mr Oil’s point?
Sex Crime, victim, no name suppression… Now you can’t get more shameful than that and yet there isn’t any name suppression.
His post is headed “Why no victim protection in this case?”. There’s a simple answer. The victim’s name is in fact suppressed. It happens by operation of the law, automatically. The reason the papers can name the defendant is that this doesn’t reveal the identity of the victim. That’s completely different to a situation where the relationship between the defendant and the victim is already in the public domain… in those circumstances, naming the defendant would identify the victim.
I believe the liberal crim-huggers’ viewpoint is simply that sex victims’ identities should be protected (or perhaps that the laws providing such protection should be obeyed). It’s not inconsistent to decry a blogger who reveals a victim’s identity and have no problems with a story that doesn’t.
Topics: Name suppression | Comments Off on Meanwhile, over at Whale HQ