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The calmanac.com "news" names people by name for things they may have done?
snippet from the disclaimer at the bottom:
..where they will remain part of a permanent record of the newspaper, and are likely to be included in search engines, such as Google and Yahoo.
I sadly cannot post the url because it will probably be edited, but the point is this site puts people on a permanent "black" list with their whole name.
For me it is unclear if they are already convicted. And even if they are, should their names be permanently found in a search engine?
The site puts in a disclaimer that all this information may be accessed through a search engine such as Google (the above quote) - which is new to me and in a way quite decent. However, putting names to acts on the web like this will lead to many people rightly asking for Google to unindex this page - and rightly so!
Your opinions?
I can't see why a newspaper should have to exclude an entire page/feature of their publication from their online presence just because people's names are included in a negative context. The next logical step would be saying that all coverage of criminal activity and criminal court cases must be kept off the internet until/unless a guilty verdict is returned by the jury, which would just be silly. It would mean censoring an entire genre of news coverage...
In spectacular cases the public might have an interest in being informed about the court preceedings and facts about the crime prior to a conviction. In those cases it will be justified to interfere with the suspectīs rights. The extensive media coverage will ensure that in the case of an acquittal that fact will become known as well.
But whatīs the big interest in petty crimes as reported in those articals. As I can tell you from my own experience in court it is amazing how many cases end with an acquittal when the public prosecution thought the case to be a clear conviction. And will the press really inform the public that a person they named as being arrested was acquitted? No, they will not. People donīt like those news, so the press wonīt bother.
If you're referring to a "police beat" sort of listing of local arrests and whatnot..
Yes, sorry I did not recheck the earlier posted link, this search on google police [news.google.com] should come up with the example I meant.
...such pages have been a staple feature of newspapers
1. If the Police or newspaper publishes my name because I drove a car with a bit too much alcohol when I was 18:
Should this be a one time publication in a newpaper print? or an eternal find on a website?
snipped snippet from the bottom of the page:
The news ...including the Police Calls columns, appear on the .... Web site, .... where they will remain part of a permanent record of the newspaper...
and therefore an eternal find with Google, for anyone (employer) ten years later in life, just by typing my name?
2. Snippet from the top of the Police calls Amanac:
...Under the law, people charged with offenses are considered innocent until convicted.
I would hope these online services have a decency to remove these names sooner or later. I am sure that in some other societies, cultures or countries such name dropping whilst under suspicion would not be aloud.
I know it happens and happened in some form or other in the past in print.
Its just that a site and Google's full text indexing can give eternal implications.
I am glad I had my infant wild times while internet was still in its real infancy :)