WBA Newsroom
The news media plays an important role in covering the impact of crime on communities and individuals. While crime survivors and victim advocates can find the media glare difficult to navigate at times, reporting can be beneficial in many cases including renewing investigators’ attention on unsolved crimes or raising awareness of victims’ issues and resources for survivors.
The National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC) has published a guide to provide best practice for the media when dealing with victims. We will explain how to use the NCVC guide and offer practical tips to protect survivors from unwanted attention, and to leverage coverage for positive results.
We will also connect these practices to Wisconsin’s crime victims’ rights constitution amendment know as Marsy’s Law, translating constitutional rights into newsroom choices that respect privacy, dignity, notification, and participation while maintaining accuracy and the public’s right to know.
The speakers presenting are Leigh Mills, Evening News Anchor for WMTV; Kim Goldman, Victim Rights Advocate and sister of OJ Simpson murder victim Ron Goldman; Ashley Lutheran, Deputy Investigations Editor for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; and Renee Williams, Executive Director at the National Center for Victims of Crime. The panel was moderated by the State Director for Marsy’s Law Wisconsin, Nela Kalpic.