MAINTENANCE ACT 1965 - SECT 129 Publication of proceedings

MAINTENANCE ACT 1965 - SECT 129

129 Publication of proceedings

(1) Any person who publishes, or causes to be published, in a newspaper or periodical, or by means of broadcasting, television, or public exhibition any report or account of the proceedings or any part of the proceedings referred to in section 128 (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.

Penalty—

Maximum penalty—$200 or 6 months imprisonment.

(2) The court, in relation to any proceedings under this Act, may by order prohibit the publication of—

(a) any report or account of the proceedings or any part of the proceedings; or

(b) the name or address or any other information reasonably likely to disclose the identity of any person involved in or connected with the proceedings.

(3) Any person who publishes or causes to be published in a newspaper or periodical, or by means of broadcasting, television, or public exhibition any matter the publication of which is prohibited by reason of an order made under subsection (2) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.

Penalty—

Maximum penalty—$200 or 6 months imprisonment.

(4) Where an offence against this Act arising under any provision of this section is constituted by the publication of the prohibited matter in a newspaper or periodical, the proprietor, publisher and printer of that newspaper or periodical shall each also be guilty of the offence and liable to the penalty as prescribed.

(5) In this section—


"newspaper" ,
"proprietor" ,
"publisher" and
"printer" shall respectively have the meanings assigned to those terms by the Printers and Newspapers Act 1953 .

Editor’s note—

Printing and Newspapers Act 1953 —now see Acts Interpretation Act 1954 , section 14H and Printing and Newspapers Act 1981 .

(6) Subject to subsection (7) , this section and any order under this section applies so as not to prevent or prohibit the publication of a report of any proceedings under this Act—

(a) in, or in any separate volume or part of, any bona fide series of law reports not forming part of any other publication and comprising solely reports of proceedings in courts of law; or

(b) in any publication of a technical character bona fide intended for circulation amongst members of the legal or medical profession.

(7) A report authorised by subsection (6) shall not contain any name or address or any other information reasonably likely to disclose the identity of any person involved in or connected with any proceedings referred to in subsection (1) or any proceedings with respect to which an order has been made under subsection (2) .