bdnews24.com explains why rape victim was named - because she insisted

There has been talk about the disclosure of the identity of a rape victim in a news report carried by bdnews24.com.

The highest journalistic standards and media ethics have won Bangladesh’s largest news publisher a legion of readers and we feel we owe them an explanation.

The housewife herself had revealed her name to the media and demanded justice after some men circulated a false pornographic video about her.

Bangladesh’s first internet newspaper also ran the report and carried her name in the story on her insistence, as did other media organisations.

Later, in a cruel turn of events, the woman was raped by those who had earlier threatened to circulate the pornographic video.

We were compelled to carry her name in the report on the gang-rape to provide the background and the logical sequence to the story.

Let us reaffirm that we have carried her name only after she insisted. She perhaps realised her problems will increase once she was named in media reports – but she insisted on that to attract attention and seek justice.

We are against naming rape victims – unless they insist they are identified in their quest for justice.