UK News 17-12-2001 Name And Shame Campaign Gets Government Backing who: The News Of The World what: Continues controversial `Name and Shame` Paedophile campaign when: Yesterday snippet: The News of the World yesterday "used the conviction of Roy Whiting for the murder of Sarah Payne to resume its campaign of `naming and shaming` paedophiles," begins Richard Alleyne in today`s Telegraph. "The paper stopped short of its original practice of listing names and addresses, however, publishing pictures of men who had failed to enter new addresses on the sex offenders` register." The Independent notes that the campaign was praised by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Home Secretary David Blunkett, but adds that "the pitfalls surrounding such a campaign were also highlighted when Scotland Yard said the News of the World had wrongly given details of an offender who was already under supervision." Metropolitan Police, who co-operated with yesterday`s publication by supplying pictures of wanted paedophiles, were unhappy with the decision of the newspaper to publish details of an offender not on the wanted list. "As far as we are concerned, this man has been dealt with," said a police spokesman. "The paper has acted as judge and jury and this is where we start to get into dangerous territory. We did not sanction the use of this man`s photograph." Despite applauding the efforts of The News Of The World, David Blunkett will not bow to pressure to introduce a `Sarah`s Law` to disclose the whereabouts of paedophiles to local communities, reports The Guardian. However, the Home Office is considering the introduction of new technology to monitor offenders released into society, such as satellite tracking and `reverse tagging` where an alarm would sound if an offender entered a particular building or set of locations. [... more]

What The Papers Say is delivered to thousands of readers every morning by web, WAP and email. Sign up today!