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The Right to Know

Bradshaw, Simon
June 4, 2015

Source: (2000) Relational Justice Bulletin. January (5): 4. Downloaded 15 May 2003.

Simon Bradshaw is a newspaper editor in England. In this essay he takes issue with recent guidelines from the Association of Chief Police Officers concerning the release of information to the media about victims and witnesses of crime, road accidents, and other incidents. The guidelines prevent the police from informing the media of the names of those involved without their permission. Bradshaw argues for a number of reasons that this policy is wrong. In particular he asserts that it contradicts a basic tenet of relational justice, namely, that crime prospers in anonymous societies. Put positively, the pursuit of right relationships which is at the heart of relational justice requires the free flow of information, especially at a local level.

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