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Media Ban in Pickton Case Extends to Internet Broadcasting and URLs
The judge in the highly publicized murder trial of Robert Pickton has issued an unprecedented media ban that extends to broadcasting prohibited information on the Internet as well as to identifying websites from which prohibited information can be accessed.
In a ruling released on June 8, 2005, Justice James Williams of the British Columbia Supreme Court, concluded that s. 648(1) of the Criminal Code, which prohibits the "broadcast" of information heard in the absence of a jury, extends to the broadcasting of information on the Internet. Justice Williams also issued a common law media ban, in the same terms as s. 648(1) but with specific application to the Internet, to ensure the same result in the event that his expansive interpretation of "broadcast" in s. 648(1) was incorrect.
More significantly, the Pickton media ban extends to "the broadcast by any means, including the Internet, of information that would tend to identify websites or other sources from which prohibited information about these proceedings can be accessed, including, but not limited to, the names and addresses of any such websites and sources". The media ban thereby prohibits publishing or broadcasting the URLs of websites originating anywhere in the world that are themselves broadcasting prohibited information on the Internet in contravention of the ban. Justice Williams stated that this novel extension to the ban was "in order that the intent of s. 648(1) may be most fully achieved".
Pickton's counsel had sought, among other restrictions, a ban on "causing to be made available on the Internet or by any electronic means" prohibited information. In rejecting this request, Justice Williams recognized that such a ban would capture email communications between individuals and pose no material risk to Pickton's right to a fair trial.
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