A court in Australia on Friday fined news website Yahoo7 A$320,000 (US$250,000) over a story it published last year that led to a murder trial in Melbourne being aborted.
The article contained information the jury had not yet heard, which led to the jury being discharged. The website and journalist were both convicted of contempt of court.
Victorian Supreme Court Justice John Dixon said on Friday that aborting the trial wasted considerable time, incurred substantial costs and burdened the court, and caused "great inconvenience and stress to the accused, the victim's family and witnesses."
He also slammed Yahoo7, a joint-venture of Yahoo! and Australian Channel 7 television, for a "serious lack of proper oversight."
The article, titled "Man paused to take a 'smoke break' while bashing girlfriend to death," was on the Yahoo7 website for more than four days and was removed only after it was discovered that it had caused the jury to be discharged.
A second trial was held a few months later and the man was found guilty.
Dixon said Yahoo7 was responsible for contempt since it failed to ensure its systems for controlling and disseminating information about court cases were sufficient to stop prejudicial material from being aired.
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