Name suppression dropping

Stuff reports:

But figures issued under the Official Information Act show it is already becoming rarer for the courts to grant permanent name suppression.

Canterbury University media law expert Professor Ursula Cheer said her students had researched the figures this year. They found 880 people were granted permanent name suppression in 2009 – of whom 218 were convicted – and the figure dropped steadily each year, reaching 354 in 2012, including 132 convicted offenders.

That’s a pleasing trend.

I have less of an issue with name suppression for people not convicted, but permanent name suppression for someone convicted of a crime should be very rare.