Latest data ... Suppression and no publication orders from 2017 to 2021 ... Prejudice to administration of justice versus open justice ... Five-year trend is up and up ... Victoria's amended Open Courts Act led to more suppression orders ... Data prepared by Gina McWilliams, senior News Corp lawyer ... more
Category: Suppression
Munshizada v R
NSW Court of Criminal Appeal ... Non-publication orders lifted over murder trials ... Argument reporting would prejudice upcoming District Court trial ... Non-publication orders had been in place for nearly five years ... Alternative relief, including contempt, available for lurid reporting ... Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports ... more
Porter v Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Federal Court ... Justice Jagot makes orders for removal of unredacted ABC defence and Christian Porter's reply from Court file ... Necessary to prevent prejudice to proper administration of justice ... Giving effect to compromise and contractual bargain ... No special treatment ... Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports ... more
Christian Porter v Australian Broadcasting Corporation & Anor
Federal Court ... Bret Walker SC: Media intervenors not "self appointed bailiffs" on agreement between Porter and ABC ... Agreement to discontinue proceedings includes order seeking removal of unredacted defence and reply from court file ... Walker: Removal not "expungement", simply beyond reach of public right of access ... Compromise should be encouraged ... Dauid Sibtain: Removal derogation of overarching purpose of open justice ... "Special treatment" ... Not established that defence was scandalous, vexatious, oppressive or abuse of process ... Issues not ventilated ... Decision reserved ... Court Editor Stephen Murray reports ... more
CD v FG
Supreme Court of NSW ... Defendant wants to publish allegations about a sexual affair ... Free speech ... #MeToo ... Wide gag order as part of AVO ... Some allegations found to be untrue ... Damages inadequate to protect reputation ... Injunction ... Further submissions on what may be published ... Anna Kretowicz reports ... more
State of NSW v Bowdidge (No. 2) (Application by Nationwide News Pty Ltd)
Justice Peter Hamill ... Daily Telegraph reporter granted partial access to the court file in a case involving extended supervision orders for a high-risk sex offender ... Open justice as an overarching legal principle ... Non-party access to court file ... Glitch in the practice note ... Countervailing considerations ... Quality of court reporting, click-bait and embarrassment not sufficient to overcome fundamental principles ... Stephen Murray reports ... more
Jane Doe v XYZ
Pseudonym order granted to prominent lawyer accused of jilting his lover ... Salacious claims ... Embarrassment ... Trespass to the body ... Battery ... Nervous shock ... Order necessary to prevent the applicant's wife from discovering infidelities ... Supreme Court of Victoria ... Janek Drevikovsky reports ... more
Geoffrey Rush v Nationwide News
Yael Stone identified as Witness X in the Geoffrey Rush defamation case ... Her allegations against Rush, some of a sexual nature, already aired in the New York Times and on the ABC ... Details of Stone's evidence remain suppressed ... Newspaper gives interim undertakings not to repeat the substance of Rush's imputations ... Lawyers for Rush say the Telegraph is "attacking the court" ... Nationwide News will ask Justice Wigney to recuse himself from further handling the case ... Apprehended bias ... Stephen Murray reports ... more
Roberts-Smith v Fairfax Media Publications
Identity of defence witness suppressed ... Concerns about safety of the witness ... Disturbing threats made on social media ... Violence also threatened against TV panellist who criticised Roberts-Smith ... No suggestion the applicant is responsible for the threats ... Identity of "Person 17" unlikely to be suppressed at trial ... Stephen Murray reports ... more
A brief history of recent court suppressions
"Suppression" is the media-law word for 2018 ... Everyone wants to know more about what has been suppressed by the courts ... Invariably the cat gets out of the bag ... Latest suppression statistics Australia-wide ... Are suppression orders sensible in the age of the internet? ... Richard Ackland reports ... more
Injunctions, suppression and defamation
UPDATE ... Circumspection in reporting required for defamation cases ... Earlier injunction involving sexual abuse allegations lifted as "events changed dramatically" ... Names of anonymous litigants now revealed ... Confidential information in statement of claim suppressed in Ryde Ex-Services Club case ... Nick Bonyhady reports ... more
Fairfax Media Publications; NSW Crime Commission v Yucel
Accessing crime commission documents ... The need for "exceptional circumstances" ... Future criminal cases versus open justice ... From our reporter Nick Bonyhady ... more