(WOMENSENEWS)–This was the headline of this past week’s Globe, a supermarket tabloid: “Kobe’s Accuser: Did She Really Say No?” An accompanying photograph shows the alleged rape victim in the case against Kobe Bryant, the U.S. basketball star, hiking up her dress to reveal a garter at her 2002 high school prom.
“Because it is a salacious picture, there is imputed slander in printing that sort of a pose,” said Catharine Laidlaw-Sly, president of the National Council of Women of Canada. She was quoted in a story by the Ottawa Citizen about the use of the woman by the Globe, based in Boca Raton, Fla.
The Globe–which this past summer ran a photograph of the alleged victim with her eyes covered–labels the image “FIRST PHOTO,” staking its claim to being the first magazine or newspaper to publish an unobstructed photograph of the alleged victim.
“Exposing this woman to publicity is another form of violence against women,” said Laidlaw-Sly.
— Carline Bennett.
