Talk about your case on Facebook and it could mean 12 months Jail soon.
The new proposed Section.114Q makes it a criminal (Indictable) offence to communicate to the public an account of proceedings that identifies parties or others involved in proceedings.
This section says that it is against the law for someone to tell the public about a court case and give details that could identify people involved in the case, such as parties, witnesses, or others related to the case.
This means if you have a Facebook profile that is your real identity and you use that to post/comment/chat you would be in breach of this new law and face up to 12 months in jail as a criminal offence.
This includes talking about things like names, addresses, or descriptions of the people, pictures of you, your children or even the ex in your profile when you use your profile to discuss your case.
The punishment for breaking this law is one year in prison. However, if a court gives permission for this information to be shared, it is not against the law. The person who is sharing the information must prove that the court allowed it.
(a) the person communicates to the public an account of proceedings under this Act; and
(b) the account identifies:
(i) a party to the proceedings; (This could be a person using their Facebook profile to talk about their case) or
(ii) a witness in the proceedings; or
(iii) a person who is related to, or is associated with, a party to the proceedings; or
(iv) a person who is, or is alleged to be, in any other way concerned in the matter to which the proceedings relate.
Penalty: Imprisonment for 1 year.
Note: A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matters in this subsection
(see subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code).
(3) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(b), an account of proceedings is taken to identify a person if the account includes material that is sufficient to identify the person to a member of the public.
Examples of such material include the following:
(a) a picture, recording, or physical description of the person; (This could be a Facebook Profile)
(b) a name or title that identifies the person; (This could be a Facebook Profile)
(c) an address or location where the person resides or works; (This could be a Facebook Profile, or stuff you post/chat about)
(d) details of the person’s employment, paid or voluntary; (This could be a Facebook Profile, or stuff you post/chat about)
(e) the relationship or other connection between the person and an identified person or business;
(This could be a Facebook Profile, or stuff you post/chat about)
(f) the person’s political, philosophical or religious beliefs; (This could be a Facebook Profile, or stuff you post/chat about)
(g) any real or personal property associated with the person. (This could be a Facebook Profile, or stuff you post/chat about)
Source : Exposure Draft