EDITOR'S NOTE: The High Court overturned Cardinal George Pell's conviction for historic child sex offences in a judgment handed down April 7, 2020. In a unanimous decision all seven High Court judges found Victoria's Court of Appeal should not have upheld Pell's conviction. It found the evidence could not support a guilty verdict.

The judiciary's sensitivity to media criticism and mistrust of jurors' impartiality has led some judges to grant suppression orders inappropriately, according to a retired judge.

Justice Frank Vincent, whose 2017 government inquiry into suppression orders in Victoria was highly critical of the system, said after George Pell was sentenced this week that the relationship between the media and the courts had become "toxic".

The relationship recently reached boiling point when Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Kerri Judd, QC, threatened to lay criminal charges against dozens of journalists including three at The Age for contempt of court, claiming reports that appeared soon after Pell’s conviction for child abuse violated a suppression order over proceedings.

Justice Vincent refused to comment on the appropriateness of the suppression order in the Pell case – the verdict of which was widely shared on social media and foreign news sites – out of respect for presiding judge Peter Kidd.