2021 Georgia Code
Title 16 - Crimes and Offenses
Chapter 6 - Sexual Offenses
§ 16-6-23. Publication of Name or Identity of Female Raped or Assaulted With Intent to Commit Rape
- It shall be unlawful for any news media or any other person to print and publish, broadcast, televise, or disseminate through any other medium of public dissemination or cause to be printed and published, broadcast, televised, or disseminated in any newspaper, magazine, periodical, or other publication published in this state or through any radio or television broadcast originating in the state the name or identity of any female who may have been raped or upon whom an assault with intent to commit the offense of rape may have been made.
- This Code section does not apply to truthful information disclosed in public court documents open to public inspection.
- Any person or corporation violating this Code section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(Ga. L. 1911, p. 179, §§ 1, 2; Code 1933, § 26-2105; Code 1933, § 26-9901, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1.)
Cross references.- Constitutional guarantee of free speech and press, Ga. Const. 1983, Art. I, Sec. I, Para. V.
Law reviews.- For article, "The Supreme Court on Privacy and the Press," see 12 Ga. L. Rev. 215 (1978). For comment on Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn, 420 U.S. 469, 95 S. Ct. 1029, 43 L. Ed. 2d 328 (1975), holding a state may not impose sanctions on accurate publication of name of rape victim obtained from official court records, see 24 Emory L.J. 1205 (1975); see 9 Ga. L. Rev. 963 (1975).
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Limited application.
- O.C.G.A. § 16-6-23 protects only the name and identity of a victim of rape or sexual assault with intent to rape and it does so only up to the point where the name or identity appears in an open court record. Doe v. Board of Regents, 215 Ga. App. 684, 452 S.E.2d 776 (1994).
Publication of an article containing a rape victim's name, age, and street address, and stating, not that she was raped, but that she was "assaulted and robbed," was not a violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-6-23. State v. Brannan, 267 Ga. 315, 477 S.E.2d 575 (1996).
Right to privacy outweighed by legitimate public interest.
- Victim of a sexual assault could not recover damages from a newspaper for invasion of privacy since, when the victim shot and killed the perpetrator of the assault, the victim became the object of legitimate public interest and the newspaper had the right under the United States and Georgia Constitutions to accurately report facts regarding the incident, including the victim's name. Macon Tel. Publishing Co. v. Tatum, 263 Ga. 677, 436 S.E.2d 655 (1993).
O.C.G.A. § 16-6-23 contravened the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Dye v. Wallace, 274 Ga. 257, 553 S.E.2d 561 (2001).
Construction of O.C.G.A. § 16-6-23 is not to be rendered meaningless but must be construed so as to achieve the humane and crime-reporting purposes which prompted its passage. Doe v. Board of Regents, 215 Ga. App. 684, 452 S.E.2d 776 (1994).
Legislative intent.
- By passing the Rape Shield Statute, the legislature has stated as a matter of public policy that, where the crime involved is rape, sexual assault, or attempted sexual assault, the legitimate public interest in the identity of the victim does not outweigh the victim's privacy interest. Macon Tel. Publishing Co. v. Tatum, 208 Ga. App. 111, 430 S.E.2d 18 (1993).
State has a legitimate interest in protecting the privacy of a sexual assault victim. Doe v. Board of Regents, 215 Ga. App. 684, 452 S.E.2d 776 (1994).
Establishment of truth of rape charge not required.
- Since a victim's claim that she was raped was a part of university police reports concerning the incident, the fact that she had initially misrepresented the circumstances of the attack did not alter the assertion of rape which must be accepted as true for purposes of O.C.G.A. § 16-6-23. It was not required that the matter be established as true in order for the identity of the victim to be protected and she was entitled to an injunction against disclosure of her name and identity. Doe v. Board of Regents, 215 Ga. App. 684, 452 S.E.2d 776 (1994).
Truthful information in public court documents excepted.
- States may not impose sanctions on publication of truthful information contained in official court records open to public inspection. Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn, 420 U.S. 469, 95 S. Ct. 1029, 43 L. Ed. 2d 328 (1975), for comment, see 24 Emory L.J. 1205 (1975).
Applicability of Open Records Act.
- Pursuant to the Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. § 50-14-1 et seq., a campus newspaper was entitled to university police reports concerning an incident of alleged rape, but, in accordance with the rape victim confidentiality statute, with the victim's name and identifying information redacted. Doe v. Board of Regents, 215 Ga. App. 684, 452 S.E.2d 776 (1994).
Imposition of civil liability based on a newspaper's publication of a rape victim's name, in violation of a criminal Rape Shield Statute, was permissible under the holding of Florida Star v. B.J.F., 491 U.S. 524, 109 S. Ct. 2603, 105 L. Ed. 2d 443 (1989). Macon Tel. Publishing Co. v. Tatum, 208 Ga. App. 111, 430 S.E.2d 18 (1993).
RESEARCH REFERENCES
Am. Jur. 2d.
- 62A Am. Jur. 2d, Privacy, § 93.
C.J.S.- 77 C.J.S., Right of Privacy and Publicity, §§ 2, 7, 21 et seq.
ALR.- Propriety of publishing identity of sexual assault victim, 40 A.L.R.5th 787.
