The news outlets were found guilty of 21 counts of contempt of court for ignoring the gag order in the case of Pell, a top Vatican official who was convicted of abusing two choirboys but later cleared on appeal after spending a year in prison.
The news organisations had already pleaded guilty in a deal with the court that led to contempt charges being dropped against 18 individual journalists and editors who had faced possible jail time if they were also convicted. Most of the fines were levied against newspapers and websites of Australia's two biggest news companies -- Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and the Nine Entertainment group.
"They each took a deliberate risk by intentionally advancing a collateral attack on the role of suppression orders and Victoria's justice system," he said.A judge issued the suppression order in December 2018 to prevent news of Pell's convictions from prejudicing jurors in an expected second trial on child sex abuse charges that were subsequently dropped in early 2019.