Australian media challenge 'unprecedented' contempt charges over Pell reporting

SYDNEY – The lawyer defending Australia's biggest news organisations against contempt charges for their reporting of Cardinal George Pell's sex crimes conviction denounced on Monday what he called an unprecedented attack on press freedom in the country.

Some foreign media, including The New York Times and the Washington Post, reported Pell's conviction in December, while local media ran cryptic articles complaining that they were being prevented from reporting a story of major public interest. Matthew Collins, representing the accused media at the first hearing on the matter on Monday, said such wide-ranging contempt charges had "no precedent" in Australian legal history.

He added that the contempt allegations lacked specific examples of how any of the accused news companies or journalists actually breached the gag order when they never mentioned Pell or the crimes for which he was convicted.

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