Close to home, there is growing pressure for the identity of an Auckland primary school teacher facing sex charges to be made public, to lift a cloud over other men.

The Shore teacher appeared in North Shore District Court on Friday facing six charges relating to indecent acts on young boys. His name and that of the school he is employed by, were suppressed.

Last week a “prominent” Manawatu man was granted permanent name suppression in a pornography case. On Saturday the Manawatu Standard editorial, on  name suppression, canvassed the case of the man sentenced for a raft of pornographic offending. He was charged with 25 counts of possessing objectionable material and one count of distributing pornographic images on the internet after an FBI investigation led to his arrest last year.

Part of the editorial is printed here

Editorial – Manawatu Standard 6 February 2010:

If there were any lingering doubts that the guidelines for suppressing names in this country needed strengthening, the case detailed in today’s Manawatu Standard should shatter them.

The creeping secrecy pervading our justice system has long since passed what the public should accept as a reasonable restriction on their freedom of expression in order to safeguard the administration of justice.

The decision to suppress the name of a prominent Manawatu man convicted of downloading pornographic images of children is a salient example of how the principle of open justice has been reduced to little more than a passing mention before a judge abdicates his or her duty to ensure our public court system belongs to the people.

For Judge Fraser to say publication of the man’s identity was not required because none of the thousands of children pictured were New Zealanders is logically outrageous. Such an argument requires one to believe this man investigated the background of each of his young victims to determine they were not from this country. Does Judge Fraser believe that had the man known the children were New Zealanders he would have not downloaded the images?