The man accused of killing Brunswick woman Jill Meagher will contest the charges laid against him.

Adrian Ernest Bayley, 41, from Coburg, made a brief appearance in the Melbourne Magistrates Court via video link from the Melbourne Assessment Prison this morning.

He is charged with the rape and murder of the 29-year-old ABC employee, who disappeared from a busy Brunswick street in September.

The court heard Bayley will contest the allegations at a hearing in March.



Throughout the 15-minute mention this morning, Bayley sat with his hands clasped on a table in front of him.

He indicated briefly that he could see the court and hear the proceedings.

Bayley's defence team was granted the right to cross-examine witnesses at a contested committal to be heard on March 12 and 13.

Deputy chief magistrate Felicity Broughton extended a suppression order restricting the publication of any material about Bayley that was likely to prejudice the case.

The focus of the ban is on internet sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube which have published a vast amount of material that Bayley's lawyers argued incited hatred and vilified him.



In October, Ms Broughton said attempts to stop social media commentary on the case had so far failed and a great deal of the material was prejudicial.



Ms Meagher vanished after leaving a Sydney Road bar where she had been with a group of colleagues on September 21, just a five-minute walk from home.

When she failed to return, her husband launched a social media campaign that quickly gathered momentum and made international headlines.

Bayley was arrested a week later.

Ms Meagher's body was discovered in a shallow grave by the side of the road at Gisborne South, about 50 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.