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
Category: Suppression
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
Open justice v suppression orders: Tales from the front line
Suppression orders continue to pose a real problem for the media … How do they work and why are they so freely granted? ... News Corp Australia in-house counsel Larina Mullins reports on a recent case from the front line and reviews the current state of play in our courts ... more
Tariq Khuja v Times Newspapers Lt and Ors (formerly known as PNM v Times Newspapers Limited and Ors
Long-running battle for anonymity brought by a man who was investigated over child sex abuse claims ends in a victory for the media and the public interest … Media Lawyer’s Mike Dodd reports on a recent and significant decision of the UK Supreme Court ... more
State of NSW v Graham Kay
Lawyers for The Daily Telegraph succeed in getting suppression order pertaining to the “North Shore rapist” lifted … NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison rejects the serial sex offender’s arguments on two grounds – necessity and futility, and includes a warning to “anonymous contributors” ... more
Lloyd Rayney v The State of Western Australia (No.8)
A rare win for open justice as WA Supreme Court refuses to suppress the identity of a key witness in criminal barrister Lloyd Rayney’s defamation action against the State of WA … Nick Stagg reports ... more