Name Suppression To Be Urged

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31120, 25 July 1966, Page 14

Name Suppression To Be Urged

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 24.

Delegates to the National Party conference will be asked tomorrow to approve moves towards suppression of names and evidence in criminal charges.

Before the conference will be remits urging the Government to enact legislation to provide: “That suppression of name be granted as of right to any person found not guilty of any criminal or quasi-criminal charge. “That the publication of evidence taken at the preliminary hearing be prohibited in all cases where the accused is committed for trial.” Yesterday, after the conference opened in Wellington, a committee of delegates approved both these remits. During debate one delegate said there was a stigma attached to the person who merely had appeared on a criminal charge. It also was pointed out that at present the Magistrate in minor cases did not have the right of suppressing the 1

name of any person with a previous conviction. The committee was told that anyone who had read published evidence at a preliminary hearing could not sit on a jury with an unbiased mind. Not A Trial Mr A. Martin (Miramar) quoted the Chief Justice, Sir Richard Wild, as saying many people believed the preliminary hearing was a trial—but it was rather an investigation of whether there should be a trial. On the second remit, one delegate said publication of preliminary evidence had in some cases brought new witnesses to light, while another questioned whether the press should have to cover the preliminary hearing only to fee instructed later that the report could not be published.