Bill Hodge: Retired Law Professor talks the issues with name suppression rules in our justice system

New Zealand's suppression laws are back in the spotlight. 

This comes after the Mowbray family called out those on TikTok who placed Mat Mowbray at the centre of a child abuse material case.

The man who was jailed in this particular case has permanent name suppression and has been identified only as a member of a wealthy Kiwi family.

But that didn’t stop people on social media from pointing the finger at Mowbray—and now the family are calling for a review of our suppression laws.

Retired law professor Bill Hodge joined Ryan Bridge to discuss. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The mobrains reckon, we need to change our suppression laws.
They're calling out people on TikTok for putting Matt Mowbray
at the center of child abuse material case. This is
the guy. You might have seen it in the news.
Jaild has permanent name suppression. Media describes them as an
unnamed member of a wealthy Kiwi family. So people online
start having their reckons as they wanted to do the wrong.

(00:22):
Retired law professor Bill Hodges with us this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Bill, good morning, good morning to you.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
The mobrays have a point.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Here, Oh, of course they do. Of course they do.
They've got a very good point. But this has been
the stand. It's not new. It's not as if they've
just invented this issue. It's been long understood that when
one person's name is suppressed, other people in the same
general category are under suspicion and rumors go around. For example,

(00:49):
if you said a music teacher in a high school
has been arrested, in charge, etc. Then every music teacher
in every high school is now under suspicion and has
to start to try to clear themselves. Happily, the Mowbrays
seem to be able to give enough facts to absolutely
shut down the rumor because of the clear contradictions that

(01:10):
he's sout. But some people can't, and it is an issue.
And I think the problem is that instead of starting
with the principle of open justice, that the courts should
be transparent, the principles of justice should be available to
the people so that they can know who is in
the court and why is in the court, with very

(01:31):
specific and narrow exceptions. Isn't it pretty the victims? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, Bill? Is there a difference here between somebody who
is convicted of a crime in somebody and I know
in this case that they were found guilty, but merely
being charged with a crime. You know, why don't we
just say someone's been charged with a crime, not tell
you who they work for, that they're wealthy, what their
name is, anything like that.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Generally we should know who was in the court. I
can remember a few years ago, before your time, that
the Labor government passed the statute providing for that for
absolute name suppression. Not long afterwards, you won't remember this,
but a labor MP was involved with two boys in

(02:19):
a motel room and the name was suppressed, and suddenly
every single Labor MP was saying no it's not me, No, no,
it's not me. So there's still the aspersion and the
rumor and the taint on the reputation of all the
people in the same category. I think we should know.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Who was in the court, What can we do, what
can the mobras do? And like, if you are in
the situation where you're named in correctly, what requels do
you have?

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well, first of all, I think you say this person
is convicted. I think there's an appeal still going either
by you people or by the crown that's going on
on to the next level that the name should not
be permanently suppressed, although I am aware of some cases
that are because of some political appearance. In this case,

(03:11):
if the Mowbrays have a defendant, and I'm not really
sure how the concept of TikTok other social media can
be brought to bear. If there's a name associated with publication,
that's a good defamation action depending on exactly what was said.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Bill, Appreciate your time, Bill Hodge retired law provisa. For
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