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I’ve spent a good portion of my professional life begging whatever newspaper I’m working for to bring a lawyer to court to fight one publication ban or another.

While some are statutory – such as the ban on using the name of a young person, publishing evidence from a bail or pre-trial hearing or identifying a victim of sexual assault – others aren’t.

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Many are arbitrary, made at the behest of a lawyer over-reaching for his client or the state (depending on whether he is a defence lawyer or prosecutor), agreed to by a judge who pays lip service to the notion of the constitutional right of the press then slaps on a whimsical ban anyway.

For instance, I once had to get a lawyer to argue that I should be allowed a glimpse of an exhibit list, this in a democracy, at an ostensibly public trial held in a public courtroom.

We in my business may loathe these latter sort of bans – may get lawyers to fight against them as often as we can afford to do so – but we nonetheless honour them.