Several more news organizations yesterday named the woman who said she was raped by a Kennedy family member, fanning a debate about publishing the identities of sexual-assault victims.

Among those who followed NBC News and The New York Times in identifying the woman were the Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. and the Reuters news agency.

Among the most vocal critics were those who said disclosure would disclosure women from reporting rapes by having their identities revealed.

"If you want to reduce the number of those who come forth and report rapes to the authorities, just start publishing and broadcasting their names and addresses. That'll do it," said Anne Seymour, spokesperson for the National Victim Center.

Editors also anguished over the propriety of naming the suspect, William Kennedy Smith, the nephew of U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 (D-Mass.), with-out identifying the accuser. Police identified Smith as the suspect several days after the Easter weekend incident. He has not been charged, but an investigation continues.

"All editors have the same dilemma," said Frank Daniels III, executive editor of The News and Observer in Raleigh, N.C., which withheld the woman's name. "By naming the defendant, you've now said someone is an alleged rapist without naming who's saying that."

Some of those who identified the woman said her privacy was no longer an issue because others had used it.

"After a lot of discussion, we decided to use the name in an extraordinary case that had been reported nationwide," said Heath Meriwether, executive editor of the Detroit Free Press.

"We felt we should give our readers as much information as we had to enable them to sort out a complicated situation. And the issue of privacy was moot, after broad-cast of her name by NBC and publication in The New York Times," Meriwether said.

Robert Crooke, spokesperson for Reuters in New York, said the woman's name was carried Wednesday on the agency's news wires.

"Once her identity had become common and public knowledge, we decided to publish it," Crooke said. He said Reuters would not change its traditional policy of not identifying rape victims.

The Palm Beach County, Fla., state attorney yesterday asked a judge to rule on whether he can prosecute news organizations who print or broadcast the woman's name. Florida law bars identifying a sexual offense victim in the news media.

In response, The New York Times issued a statement.

"Reasonable people may differ with our decision, and indeed other publications have. However, we believe that the decision of whether truthful information should be published must be made by editors, and not by the government," the statement said.

"We are confident that the court will determine that any attempt to apply Florida's statute to the publication of accurate facts about a matter of public importance is plainly unconstitutional."