ethics are a normative set of rules that establish levels of acceptable behavior. in this case, the level of acceptable behavior included a policy that effectively punished victims of sexual assault. so any uncovering of that fact--as uncomfortable at it would have to be-- would necessarily lead to what would be seen as a breach of ethics, at least by the party whose behavior was being uncovered.

every time a newspaper has uncovered some sort of behavior like this, a critique of lack of journalism ethics would apply, because they are breaking the very norms that had previously allowed the behavior in question to continue unabated.