Making the justice system better for victims: consultation - easy read

Anonymity for victims in sexual offence cases

The Scottish Government thinks that there should be a right to anonymity for victims in sexual offence cases.

A right to anonymity means that it is against the law to publish information that identifies the victim.

A right to anonymity helps protect victims' privacy.

Information that identifies the victim includes:

• their name or where they live
• where they work
• photographs of them

This means that it will be against the law to include this information in reports about the case, including reports:

• in newspapers
• on TV, radio and on websites
• on social media

There are some things we need to think about before we change the law to include this right to anonymity.

We need to think about when the right to anonymity starts and when it ends.

We need to decide if the right to anonymity should be for:

• all sexual offence cases
• certain kinds of sexual offence cases

We need to decide:

• if the new law should be different for children
• what the punishment is for breaking the new law
• if there are reasons why the right to anonymity is not used

We would like to hear your views about changing the law to include a right to anonymity for sexual offence victims.