Judge Orders Reporter Not to Print Name of Victim
A California newspaper plans to file a complaint with the state Commission on Judicial Performance after a superior court judge ordered a reporter not to print the name of a victim who testified in court.
The prior restraint drew immediate criticism from First Amendment advocates who said the order was unconstitutional, the Victorville Daily Press reports.
And the paper says the order was unnecessary to boot, considering it has its own policy against naming victims of sexual abuse.
The order came during a preliminary hearing for Richard Jay Swank, a former substitute teacher charged with repeatedly abusing his son. After the victim’s testimony, Judge Bridgid McCann called a reporter from the Daily Press, the defense and prosecution attorney to the bench. She then told the reporter not to print the name of Swank’s son, which was reportedly visible on his U.S. Army uniform.
When the editor of the paper called the judge to propose an alternative, the judge declined to hear him out, the paper reports.
The newspaper can’t assume the judge’s directive “is intended as a mere request,” says Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, according to an account by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Scheer says he thinks there is a chance that “the judge will come to her senses” about the order, “but until that’s done, the newspaper is censored and the readers are not getting the information as the editors of the newspaper wish to bring it to them.”
