Pell stories aimed to dispel conspiracy theories, court told

However, social media was unregulated in many situations and “my opinion was the news would be published, or spoken about somewhere”.

Mr Lavelle said that at about 11pm on December 11, after continuing to search social media, he saw international media had begun to write about Cardinal Pell’s conviction.

The following day, December 12, he was made aware of readers asking why The Age had not covered the story, and suggestions on social media that the newspaper was part of a conspiracy to keep the story under wraps.

Mr Lavelle said it became apparent through those reader inquiries that it was worth exploring whether the newspaper could publish a story without breaking the law and “explain why we weren’t able to run this story”.

Defence counsel Dr Matthew Collins, QC, argued Mr Lavelle was part of a careful and considered process with relation to the articles, and had sought a wide range of legal and editorial views. He said there was “acute appreciation that there were prohibitions on publications”.

Supreme Court Justice John Dixon asked Mr Lavelle why a Google trends graphic, which would show names and top searches on Google, was not included in any of the articles, even though there had been discussion of that including prior to publication.

“That was because I wanted to be as cautious as possible and a graphic showing any Google trend I viewed not being as conservative as we could be,” Mr Lavelle replied.

The first day of 12 set aside for the case, resumed from last year, focused on The Age and the Herald. There are 20 charges against the two mastheads levelled at six respondents. Of those charges, 18 relate largely to the same article published across the two papers and their websites.

The papers are stablemates of The Australian Financial Review. The Financial Review journalists charged, including editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury and Melbourne bureau chief Patrick Durkin, have also denied allegations they broke the law.

The case continues.

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from The Australian Financial Review can be found here ***