Government suppression breach – not good enough

The breach of name suppression of two sex abuse victims by the Ministry of Justice is a mistake that should never have happened and is another example of the National Government's failure to protect the rights of victims, Labour’s victims rights spokesperson Carmel Sepuloni says.

“If victims can't trust the Ministry of Justice to protect their anonymity, particularly in cases where suppression orders have been granted, then how can they reasonably expect the media or any other group or individual to adhere to stipulations of suppression orders,” Carmel Sepuloni said..

“Family members have stated that the victims would not have come forward had they known they were going to be publicly identified. The psychological damage that an incident like this causes those victims must be of the utmost concern to the Government.

“This incident could deter other victims of sexual abuse victims from stepping forward out of fear that their details might be 'accidentally' released to the public.

“In 2010 the National government announced changes to name suppression laws due to a number of high profile breaches. This is ironic given that the government has now become the perpetrator of such a breach.

“Part of the suggested change is the introduction of a new offence which would capture New Zealand based internet service providers or content hosts who do not remove locally hosted suppressed information which they know is in breach of a suppression order, and who fail to block access or remove it as soon as reasonably practicable.
“In the case of Government agencies, it is reasonable to expect that information that breaches a name suppression order is not posted on Government Internet sites at all. Its processes must be better than this.

“The breaches that have prompted the National Government to review suppression laws have largely been with respect to accused offenders. What the National Government really needs to consider now, is how it protects the name suppression for victims.

“Perhaps the National Government needs to focus on its own in house processes before shifting the focus on to external breaches to suppression orders. An apology to victims will now be too little too late.”

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