Bernard Collaery’s whistleblower trial will be a key test of the National Security Information Act and the restrictions it places on defendants and the courts.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The purpose of the NSIA is to protect national security information from being disclosed in courts. But this can undermine a defendant’s ability to argue his or her innocence.
The Northern Territory is the only Australian jurisdiction where the media can identify juvenile offenders. The government now wants to end the practice.
Lucy Hughes Jones/AAP
While media outlets rail against being prohibited from reporting on certain cases, it is about striking a difficult balance between open justice and a fair trial.
George Pell emerges from court during his committal hearing on historical sexual offences.
AAP/Stefan Postles
Henry Irving, Leeds Beckett University and Judith Townend, School of Advanced Study, University of London
National security must be balanced with the need for public accountability. This trial shows that it isn’t.
Whatever else motivates Julian Assange’s Wikileaks to use online media to break a court suppression order, it isn’t a respect for justice.
AAP/Joe Castro
Contrary to twittering by the digerati, the Victorian Supreme Court suppression order revealed by WikiLeaks this week isn’t unprecedented. It isn’t futile, dangerous or an egregious restriction on a supposedly…
Why isn’t it the norm for trials in Australia of immense public interest to be broadcast, as the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius in South Africa has?
EPA/Kevin Sutherland
The one thing missing from the saturation coverage of the Daniel Morcombe murder trial in Brisbane late last week was courtroom vision. Media coverage of Brett Cowan’s conviction and sentencing involved…
Broadcaster Derryn Hinch has been found guilty of breaching court suppression orders in the past. Does justice need to be seen in order to be truly done?
AAP/Julian Smith
The Victorian state parliament is currently considering the Open Courts Bill (2013) after questions have been raised about just how much transparency is needed in the justice system. The bill, proposed…