MELBOURNE (AFP) – A prominent Australian radio personality was Thursday banned from blogging and using social media while under five months' house arrest for revealing the identities of two child sex offenders.
Melbourne talkback radio host Derryn Hinch was sentenced to five months' home detention for breaching court orders prohibiting the naming of two paedophiles in 2008.
An avid social media user with 15,400 followers on his @HumanHeadline Twitter stream and a widely-read blog, the outspoken Hinch was banned from doing interviews or speaking via the Internet during his house arrest.
"I think it's particularly shattering for him because he's been basically silenced," Hinch's radio boss Clark Forbes told listeners after the verdict.
"Even if he was in jail he probably would be able to write you a letter, get on the phone."
Magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg said Hinch had only escaped jail time due to ill health, having recently undergone a liver transplant, and warned him that even speaking on the courthouse steps would be a breach of his sentence.
Rozencwajg also banned Hinch from directing others to update his sites on his behalf, saying he "took the law into his own hands".
Hinch named the child sex offenders during a public rally and also on his website.
He is an outspoken campaigner on the issue and has previously been jailed and fined for naming a padeophile in the 1980s.
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