Newspapers: A Code for Crime Coverage

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Even after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Dr. Sam Sheppard because of the inflammatory press coverage of his trial, most newsmen scorned all suggestions that they abide by any formal set of rules laid down by courts or bar associations to govern crime reporting. Their own good judgment, they insisted almost unanimously, was all that was needed. Last week the jointly owned Toledo Blade and Toledo Times, which the Ohio Bar Association had commended for quiet coverage of the Sheppard trial, broke ranks and announced the adoption of a code of ethics. "If we're going to have policies," said Blade Editor James C. MacDonald, "we'll have our own policies and not someone else's. We'll decide for ourselves."

What the papers decided on was precisely what the bar has been urging. Until a case comes to trial, the papers pledge to print only the name, age and address of the accused, plus a description of the arrest and the charge, and the identity of the complainant. The papers also promise not to print any criminal record of the accused, or any confession he has allegedly made, until the case is concluded. Nor will they publish any statement by public officials that may hurt the accused in court. Arguments made in court in the absence of the jury, or evidence excluded by the judge, will not be published either. The rules, to be sure, include an escape clause: the papers reserve the right to suspend them in such extraordinary circumstances as a major crime wave.

Though few other papers have adopted such a formal set of rules, some have been trying to abide by them without making any published promises. Others say they plan to enact a set of guidelines once the American Bar Association publishes its promised recommendations for crime coverage next month.