
Warning: This article deals with an account of rape/sexual assault and may be triggering for survivors of abuse.
In Tasmania, two women are preparing for a fight in the state’s Supreme Court.
These women – known by pseudonyms Jane* and Leia* – are fighting to tell their own stories. And they’re fighting for other women in the state to be able to do the same, by trying to change the law.
Because these women are sexual assault survivors, and if they were to share their own stories alongside their real names and faces they could be prosecuted under an archaic Tasmanian law,
Currently, it is illegal for publications in Tasmania and the Northern Territory to name sexual assault survivors, even with the survivor’s full consent. When a Tasmanian publication did so in 2012, it was fined $20,000.
Journalist and anti-sexual assault advocate Nina Funnell is backing the women’s fight. With End Rape on Campus Australia and Marque Lawyers, she is the creator of the #LetHerSpeak campaign to scrap Section 194K of the Evidence Act.
