AGs discuss suppression orders

Australia's attorneys-general will consider suppression orders, Facebook and the impact of blogs on trials in a bid to ensure justice is administered fairly.

South Australia's Attorney-General, John Rau, will raise concerns about the application of suppression order laws to social media sites at the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) in Canberra on Friday.

"Media and mass communication has changed rapidly in recent years with the rise of blogging, social networking and people increasingly using the internet to obtain their news," Rau said in a statement on Friday.

"The publishing on a site such as Facebook of the name of an accused whose identity is suppressed, could prejudice a fair trial and prevent justice being done," he said.

His concerns come after the identity of the man accused of murdering three members of a family at Kapunda was suppressed by an SA court - but many already knew his name from Facebook.

Rau said it is vital that attorneys-general work to ensure that justice is administered fairly and this requires looking at the changing face of technology and social media.

The model suppression-order provisions approved by SCAG in May 2010 include internet publication as a form of publication that can be prohibited by a suppression or non-publication order.

But the typical user of a social networking site would probably not know of, or be reckless about, the existence of a suppression order, he said.

"By raising these concerns I hope to determine, in conjunction with the attorneys-general, whether further work is required to identify additional option for enforcing suppression orders within the social media context."

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