Kudos to veteran Baltimore reporter Sue Kopen Katcef: A wrenching report on campus rape by University of Maryland journalism students, directed by Katcef, has won a 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.

The broadcast, “Out of the Shadows” — which aired on WMUC Radio — features the voices of victims describing their confusion, anger and anguish following assaults, most committed by friends and acquaintances.

The woman describing her father’s reaction to her rape will make your heart hurt. And guess how some men on campus answer when the interviewer asks: “who’s to blame?”

One woman said she was met with skepticism when she reported the rape to the Prince George’s County police. The officer, she said, told her “Sometimes my wife and I play around together and she says no, no….and that’s part of our foreplay.”

The report tries to find ways to reduce the incidence of assaults: one national study, the report says, found one woman in five could expect to be raped in her college career. Katcef, who teaches news writing and production for broadcast journalism students, is a longtime WBAL reporter.
Listen to the broadcast here: http://www.twe.umd.edu/Spring2008/Shadows.mp3