Interesting piece in The Ottawa Citizen today on the ability of a judge to enforce what is called a ban on publication.
This article looks at Canadian bloggers writing about the trial of Robert William Pickton in British Columbia.
While traditional Canadian media is required by law to obey the judge’s request, international media does not have to.
There have been an example where traditional media outside the US have honoured Canadian bans. When the Paul Bernardo trial was underway, Detroit television stations blacked out their coverage that came into Canadian airspace. It was a bit eerie to see dead air.
The internet has changed the rules, although the law has not changed.
When the Gomery Inquiry was going on, US blogger Ed Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters was under no obligation to withhold information on Jean Brault’s testimony. And he didn’t. To this day, his source has not been made public. Canadians flocked to his blog to see what was going on. At the height of the inquiry (according to Wikipedia) his site was receiving four hundred thousand hits a day.
Canadian media can’t give the URL of two Canadian bloggers writing from the Pickton trial. If the judge so wishes he can have Trisha Baptie or Pauline VanKoll evicted from the courtroom. But changes in the ways we communicate have shown that removing people from the courtroom is not going to work.
