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Advertisement A news website and a Sydney radio station failed to get legal advice before publishing reports that breached a suppression order about George Pellâs sex abuse conviction, a court has heard. Fourteen news outlets, including The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, have admitted to a combined 21 charges of contempt of court for breaching a suppression order over reports published or broadcast in December 2018, in the days after Cardinal Pell was found guilty. Cardinal George Pell. Credit:AP The cardinal last year had his convictions quashed and was released from prison following a successful appeal to the High Court. ....
The only thing that could be reported was that Pell was facing historical child sexual offences in the county court of Victoria. Nothing could be published that was “derived” from the trial, including the verdict, the nature of the charges, or the number of victims, charges or trials, under the order. Within 24 hours of the jury handing down its verdict, the mood in some of those newsrooms had seemingly shifted. It was no longer a case of what they couldn’t publish, but what they could. Two journalists with decades of experience, former editor of the Age, Alex Lavelle, and Australian Financial Review (AFR) news editor Mark Coultan, gave evidence this week in the supreme court trial of 27 media companies, reporters and editors charged with contempt for their coverage of the Pell verdict. ....