KEY POINTS:
Dominion Post editor Tim Pankhurst admitted his newspaper was "pushing it" when it printed transcripts of a secret police bugging operation, the High Court in Wellington was told today.
Pankhurst made the comment at a Journalism Education Association meeting in December in reference to the paper's November 14 reports of extracts from police surveillance of suspected terrorism training in the Ureweras.
Pankhurst and Fairfax New Zealand Ltd are accused of contempt of court in a case brought by Solicitor-General David Collins QC.
Dr Collins has argued the publication interfered with the administration of justice by damaging chances of a fair trial for the 16 people charged at the time with firearms charges.
The case was about the courts, "not journalists, not newspaper editors", deciding whether material would damage a person's right to a fair trial, according to the Crown.
"The articles were the most serious and inexcusable breaches of an accused's fair trial rights that this country has ever seen," he said.
Dr Collins put it to Pankhurst that he had said the newspaper could not put the whole of a police affidavit on the Stuff website because making the extracts too prominent could expose Fairfax to too much risk.
And he said the editor had said he made no apologies for wanting to sell more newspapers and that he and Fairfax were "in show business".
Pankhurst said the reference to risk was in the context of balancing the right to freedom of expression with the right to a free trial.
"It was not a case of publish and be damned," he said. "It was our duty to publish."
But the editor backed away from a claim to the conference that the reports had been an "exclusive" - he said it was really the first time key elements of the raids story had been drawn together.
Hugh Rennie QC, representing Fairfax and Pankhurst, has argued that much of the information about which the Solicitor-General complained had previously been published, and that repetition did not count as disclosure.
Pankhurst said he was not suggesting The Dominion Post put itself above the law. It was very conscious of the serious issues at stake and had believed it was acting within the law.
Fairfax group executive editor Paul Thompson, who became involved at 3pm on the day before publication, said he "generally aware" of suppression orders made in earlier bail hearings for people charged under the Arms Act.
Asked by Dr Collins whether he would make the same decisions again, knowing the information now available to him now, Thompson said: "It's impossible to do what you're asking me to do."
Dr Collins repeatedly pressed him: "You might feel reluctant to answer the question ... the answer is yes or no."
Asked again, "would you publish or not publish?" if he was faced again with the same decision - but knowing details of bail hearing suppression orders and Crimes Act bans on disclosing intercepted material - Mr Thompson said: "It may change my thinking in a hypothetical situation."
The hearing is continuing.
- NZPA
