Report No. 200
(b) Australia: (New South Wales): Date of arrest as starting point.
The Report of the New South Wales Law Reform Commission (Report 100) 2003 (issued after Discussion Paper 43 (2000) on 'Contempt of Court' contains a Draft Bill which refers to potential jurors, potential witnesses and potential parties and applies criminal contempt to "active" criminal proceedings.
Prejudice to 'imminent' proceedings by publication is part of the law in New South Wales (Australia). The publication must have a tendency to prejudice the framing of proceedings. Sections 7(d), 8(d), 9(c) of the Bill annexed to the Report require that the publication creates substantial risk, according to the circumstances at the time of publication, that jurior, witnesses or parties or potential jurors or potential witnesses or potential parties may be influenced.
Schedule 1 describes when criminal proceedings are active and reads as follows:-
"Ch.1. Part 1
1. When is a criminal proceeding active?
(1) A criminal proceeding is active for the purposes of section 7:
(a) from the earliest of the following:
(i) the arrest of a person in New South Wales or in another State or Territory,
(ii) the laying of a charge,
(iii) the issue of a court attendance notice and its filing in the registry of the relevant court,
(iv) the filing of an ex-officio indictment,
(v) the making of an order in a country other than Australia that a person be extradited to New South Wales for the trial of an offence.