Associated Press to stop naming minor crime suspects; see resources for newsrooms considering the notion - Entrepreneur Generations

"The Associated Press told its journalists on Tuesday to no longer name suspects in minor crimes or publish photos of them "in brief stories about minor crimes when there is little chance the organization will cover the case beyond the initial arrest ... out of concern that such stories can have a long, damaging afterlife on the internet that can make it hard for individuals to move on with their lives," David Bauder reports. "The AP said it will also not link to local newspaper or broadcast stories about such incidents where the arrested person’s name or mugshot might be used. The AP will also not do stories driven mainly by particularly embarrassing mugshots."

The AP is the latest news organization to announce the increasingly popular policy. In 2007 The Anniston Star in Alabama chose not to name a high school football player whose ineligibility forced a team to forfeit its perfect season. In 2019 the Cedar Rapids Gazette implemented a case-by-case appeals process for removing old stories, and The Boston Globe announced a similar policy earlier this year.

A 2018 survey found that "some 80 percent of news organizations had some policy about removing stories from archives, up from less than half a decade earlier. But in some cases, the policies aren’t written down, aren’t talked about in public or aren’t even publicized in their own newsrooms," Bauder reports. The survey was conducted by journalism researcher Deborah Dwyer. Her Unpublishing the News website covers the issue extensively and includes resources for newsrooms, including a recent webinar with the News Leaders Association (see below).

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/3wvCzmo Associated Press to stop naming minor crime suspects; see resources for newsrooms considering the notion - Entrepreneur Generations

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