Washington newspaper agrees to run ads naming sex offenders

By The Associated Press

03.15.01

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SEATTLE — A weekly newspaper targeted by a proposed law that would require some papers to run sex-offender notices has agreed to include the information in advertisements, its publisher said this week.

The Shelton-Mason County Journal has refused several requests by authorities to print notices in news columns notifying readers of any sex offenders who live in their area.

"We have the philosophy that these ex-convicts have paid their debt to society," publisher Charlie Gay said March 13.

But Gay said authorities could pay to run the information in advertisements that would appear in the 9,400-circulation weekly newspaper published in Shelton, about 45 miles southwest of Seattle.

"People are welcome to print opinions and other information in advertising that we wouldn't think of as news and we wouldn't print as news," Gay said.

County sheriffs in Washington have been required since 1990 to notify communities of sex offenders in their area.

An amendment by state Sen. Tim Sheldon to an unrelated newspaper bill would require community "newspapers of record" like the Journal, which receive paid legal notices from government agencies, to run sex-offender notices as stories or ads. The bill does not yet have House approval.

Rowland Thompson, head of Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington and a lobbyist for daily and weekly papers in the state, said the amendment was unconstitutional because it infringed on freedom of the press by attempting to control the content of newspapers. But Sheldon said he would introduce a separate bill that would require papers of record to run paid legal notices.

The Seattle Times is the only other newspaper in Washington that does not routinely run sex-offender releases as news, said Thompson.

Michael Fancher, the Times executive editor, said publishing the names of released offenders could mean additional punishment after they have served their time. But he says the newspaper also has not published offender notices because many offenders do not register or give inaccurate addresses and other information.

"I do think we'll go back and re-examine the current status of things, to see if there is a compelling journalistic reason to publish the list," Fancher said.