I suppose that this ought not to be a surprise.

We have previously noted the McClatchy Company’s mugshot policy, the one which doesn’t seem to be actually available on McClatchy owned newspaper websites, or McClatchy’s site itself. I only found documentation through a tweet.

Now it seems that the Associated Press has come up with its own version. From the Rock Hill, SC, Herald:

AP says it will no longer name suspects in minor crimes

By David Bauder, Associated Press Media Writer | June 15, 2021 | 5:51 PM EDT

NEW YORK
The Associated Press said Tuesday it will no longer run the names of people charged with minor crimes, 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.

In so doing, one of the world’s biggest newsgathering organizations has waded into a debate over an issue that wasn’t of much concern before the rise of search engines, when finding information on people often required going through yellowed newspaper clippings.

Often, the AP will publish a minor story — say, about a person arrested for stripping naked and dancing drunkenly atop a bar — that will hold some brief interest regionally or even nationally and be forgotten the next day.

But the name of the person arrested will live on forever online, even if the charges are dropped or the person is acquitted, said John Daniszewski, AP’s vice president for standards. And that can hurt someone’s ability to get a job, join a club or run for office years later.

In one way, this makes more sense than the McClatchy policy, which doesn’t publish mugshots, but still prints the names of criminal suspects; search engines look for words, not faces. I noted in this story that while the Lexington Herald-Leader does not normally publish mugshots, it was easy enough for me to find the mugshots of criminal suspects.

The AP, in a directive sent out to its journalists across the country, said it will no longer name suspects or transmit photographs of them in brief stories about minor crimes when there is little chance the organization will cover the case beyond the initial arrest.

The person’s identity is generally not newsworthy beyond local communities, Daniszewski said.

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 policy will not apply to serious crimes, such as those involving violence or abuse of the public trust, or cases of a fugitive on the run.

With this, the AP has taken it upon themselves to decide which crimes are serious. But, other than the ‘fugitive on the run,’ which wasn’t enough to get the Herald-Leader to publish Juanyah Clay’s mugshot, the rationale that publishing the name of a criminal suspect could hurt his life if he happens to be acquitted ought also to apply to rape, robbery or murder. Why would a man found not guilty of murder be different from a man found not guilty of disorderly conduct?

Remember the famous Duke lacrosse team rape case, the one in which Crystal Mangum falsely accused three team members of rape? The media absolutely loved that case, and even though then state Attorney General Roy Cooper “dropped all charges, declaring the three lacrosse players ‘innocent’ and victims of a ‘tragic rush to accuse'”, the names of the accused live on on the internet. Rape is a serious, violent crime, and three innocent men will be forever tarred with the accusation.

Now, either the public has a right to know about criminal charges, in which case names and mugshots of suspects are reasonably disclosed, or those accused have a right to privacy on everything, at least until they are convicted of a crime; that should not change based on the serious of the alleged crime.