This book interrogates the process of court reporting on rape and other sexual crime cases involving Australian footballers. At the intersection of sport, gender, media and the law, it uncovers the story behind rape myths and stereotypes in media. This book analyses newspaper reporting alongside transcripts of the trials they represent and interviews with the journalists themselves. Waterhouse-Watson¿s work maps structural factors within newsrooms, and the complex relationship between the judiciary and media, that affect the practice of court reporting. This book approaches key journalism concepts like objectivity and balance critically, illustrating the layers of mediation that surround a complainant¿s testimony; the way sport shapes the meaning of courtroom and media narratives in these cases; and the tension between racism and sexism when race is thematised or otherwise highlighted. Ultimately, the book proposes an ethics of court reporting that protects individual complainants, aswell as advancing public understandings of the crime.

Deb Waterhouse-Watson is an independent scholar whose research is at the intersection of sport, sexual violence, law and the media. She has held research and teaching positions at Monash University, Deakin University and Macquarie University, Australia, and is the author of Athletes, Sexual Assault and 'Trials by Media': Narrative Immunity (2013).

1. Introduction.- 2. The Media and the Law: An Uneasy Relationship.- 3. The Ethics of Court Reporting: Storytelling in the Courtroom and Newsroom.- 4. (Re)telling the Complainant's Story.-5. When Football Enters the Courtroom.-6. The (In)Visibility of Race.- 7. Conclusion: Breaking the Cycle.