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.
“As a leader in the news industry, AP making this change is going to have a ripple effect and will prompt some organizations that don’t have this on their radar right now to stop and take a look at these practices,” said Deborah Dwyer, a doctoral student who is studying the issue and runs the website unpublishingthenews.com
Several organizations already are doing so, driven in part by requests from people whose time in the news has lived on via the internet.
The Boston Globe, for example, announced earlier this year an appeals process where it would consider, on a case-by-case basis, removing old stories from its archives. It tied its announcement to a review of policies prompted by a racial reckoning.
“We are not in the business of rewriting the past, but we don’t want to stand in the way of a regular person’s ability to craft their future,” the Globe said in announcing the effort.
In response, columnist Nicholas Goldberg of the Los Angeles Times wrote in February that news organizations “shouldn’t muck around with history.”
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