CEDRIC PATJOLE | Pacific Media Watch
THE publisher of the Post-Courier newspaper, South Pacific Post Ltd (SPP), and veteran journalist Todagia Kelola, have been found guilty of contempt and will be punished by the National Court later this month.
This ruling was handed down by Justice David Cannings after the defendants’ early pleading of “not guilty” to contempt charges against them.
They were charged following a newspaper article published on 24 March revealing the identities of six people at the asylum seeker centre in Manus.
An article by the Malaysian-owned The National newspaper on the same day also defied the court order as a security officer was revealed in its article. Publisher Pacific Star Ltd, and journalist Charles Moi, were also charged with contempt.
These defendants, however, pleaded guilty to the charge and apologised and informed the court that it was not an intentional defiance of the order.
SPP and Kelola instead decided to fight the charge and presented their arguments.
In the court’s human rights inquiry inspection of the centre last month, Cannings had ordered that all identities be “frosted’’ or published in a way that prevented the transferees and staff of the centre being identified.
In the proceedings, Justice Cannings looked at three factors before making a decision on the verdict.
The questions asked were: Was there a failure to comply? Who failed to comply? And was it deliberate?
When reading his verdict, Cannings found Kelola to have deliberately failed to do what was necessary to comply with the order and found him guilty of contempt.
Cannings said SPP could not escape criminal responsibility by saying that its directors and other officers did not know of the order. That was irrelevant. Two of its employees knew of the order and what the order required.
He said SPP was bound by their conduct, including their negligent acts or omissions and must be regarded as having deliberately failed to comply with the order. He said the SPP was also guilty of contempt, as charged.
Punishment for both defendants will be made on 29 May.