More charges have been dropped against media outlets over reporting on Cardinal George Pell’s sexual abuse convictions.

Victoria’s director of public prosecutions has dropped an additional 28 charges, including against reporters associated with the Age, Brisbane Times and WA Today.

The prosecutor, Kerri Judd QC, is pursuing contempt of court convictions against the media amid allegations they breached a suppression order after Pell was found guilty of child sexual assault.

Charges have also been dropped against Fairfax Media, because it was taken over by Nine Entertainment, and the Canberra Times.

But 100 charges are continuing against 30 Australian news organisations and editorial staff, including six individuals at News Corp, for contempt of court.

Victorian prosecutors originally asked the court to find 100 respondents guilty of contempt on the basis that publishing when there was a suppression order had the effect of “scandalising the court”.

Melbourne’s hometown tabloid, the Herald Sun, published the most dramatic piece: a black front page with the word CENSORED in large white letters. “The world is reading a very important story that is relevant to Victorians,” the page one editorial said.

“The Herald Sun is prevented from publishing details of this very significant news. But trust us, it’s a story you deserve to read.”

The paper’s former editor Damon Johnston had charges against him dropped in May last year.

Another high-profile respondent, 2GB radio host Ray Hadley, was also dropped, along with ABC and Crikey journalists who had originally been sent contempt of court notices.

At an administrative hearing at the supreme court in Melbourne on Thursday it was revealed more than half the original charges had been scrapped.

Supreme court justice John Dixon criticised the delay in proceedings, saying the matter had been dragging on for too long.

“This case is going so slowly I can’t remember the last appearance before me,” the Herald Sun quoted him as saying. “I would have thought the whole case would have been tried by now.”

The county court chief judge, Peter Kidd, imposed the suppression order on 25 June 2018 to prevent “a real and substantial risk of prejudice to the proper administration of justice” because Pell was then facing a second trial on separate charges, which have since been dropped, and Kidd was trying to avoid a jury in the second trial being prejudiced by reporting of the first.

The outlets that published or broadcast pieces in relation to the trial included the Herald Sun, the Age, Macquarie Media, Nine News in Melbourne, an ABC radio program outside Melbourne and News Corp’s the Australian.