Court Opinion

ID: 9564134
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:54:50.583575+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:14.389308
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Gunter, Justice.
The appellants have filed a motion for rehearing in which they contend that their motion for summary judgment in the trial court should have been granted because the public disclosure or publication in this case was a matter of public interest or general concern.
This argument overlooks the fact that the 1968 statute (Code Ann. § 26-9901) enacted by the Georgia Legislature declared that the identity of a female victim of the crime of rape shall not be disclosed by the news media. In the original opinion we held that this statute established the public policy of Georgia on this subject. This statute does not prevent disclosure or publication of "the event”; it merely prohibits the disclosure or publication of the identity of the victim of the event.
Implicit, though not explicit, in the appellants’ argument is that this court should declare this 1968 statute unconstitutional as violative of the First Amendment.
A majority of this court does not consider this statute to be in conflict with the First Amendment. We think the General Assembly of Georgia had a perfect right to declare that the victim of such a crime should not be publicly identified by the news media. The First Amendment is not absolute; and we consider this statute to be a legitimate limitation on the right of freedom of expression contained in the First Amendment.
There simply is no public interest or general concern about the identity of the victim of such a crime as will make the right to disclose the identity of the victim rise to the level of First Amendment protection.
No case has been cited to us, and we have found none, declaring such a statute to be unconstitutional. To the contrary, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in State v. Evjue, 253 Wis. 146, 161 (33 NW2d 305), cited in the majority opinion, said: "It is considered that there is a minimum of social value in the publication of the identity of a female in connection with such an outrage. Certain it is that the legislature could so find. At most the publication of the identity of the female ministers to a morbid desire to connect the details of one of the most detestable crimes known to the law with the identity of the victim. When the situation of the victim of the assault and the handicap prosecuting officers labor under in such *69cases is weighed against the benefit of publishing the identity of the victim in connection with the details of the crime, there can be no doubt that the slight restriction of the freedom of the press prescribed by sec. 348.412, Stats., is fully justified. We find no ground upon which sec. 348.412, Stats., may be held invalid.”
We hold that this 1968 Georgia statute is not unconstitutional, and because of this statute the disclosure of the identity of the victim of such a crime is not a matter of public interest and general concern in this state.

Motion denied.