A dozen of Australia’s largest media organisations have been fined more than $1m for contempt of court over their coverage of Cardinal George Pell’s sexual abuse conviction. Dixon rejected the media companies’ submission that the breaches of the suppression order was due to “an honest but mistaken belief that their reporting would not contravene the order”. The radio station, which the court heard had not read the suppression order nor sought legal advice before preparing Smith’s script, was fined $10,000. Then, in February, 14 news outlets pleaded guilty to a combined 21 charges of contempt of court for breaching the suppression order. Rather, he found it was “entered to protect their individual journalist, presenter and editor employees from conviction on the contempt charges they separately faced”.

Source: The Guardian June 04, 2021 01:26 UTC