All media inquiries in relation to the work of the Commission must be made via our switchboard or in writing:
Telephone: 02 9269 3888
Email: media@crimecommission.nsw.gov.au
Important information for the media about Crime Commission hearings
The Commission is constituted by the Crime Commission Act 2012 ('the Act'). The object of the Act is to reduce the incidence of organised and other serious crime. The Commission may conduct investigations pursuant to its statutory charter and for that purpose may summon persons to appear before it at a hearing to give evidence. By the Act, the hearings must be held in private.
To protect the privacy of every hearing and person summoned to a hearing, the Commission is empowered to and does, as a matter of course, make a 'non-publication direction'. The terms of the standard non-publication direction include that:
- any evidence given before the Commission, or contents of any document or description of any thing produced to the Commission, or
- any information that might enable a person who is about to give evidence or who has given evidence before the Commission to be identified or located , or
- the fact that any person has or may be about to give evidence at a hearing,
must not be published (except in such manner, and to such persons, as the Commission specifies). The Commission, by the Act, must give such a direction if the failure to do so might prejudice the safety, reputation or right to a fair trial of a person.
The Act defines 'publish'. That definition includes 'disclose to a person'. Therefore, any information (including photographs, 'film' footage or reporting) that has the capacity to directly or indirectly disclose the identity of any person attending the Crime Commission for the purposes of giving evidence during a hearing is a contravention of the non-publication direction. Any publication in contravention of a non-publication direction is a criminal offence, punishable on conviction, to imprisonment for 2 years and/or 100 penalty units.
It is not the practice of the Crime Commission to comment upon operational matters, however, if and when the Commission intends to hold hearings a non-publication direction will be in place in respect of every person travelling to, attending at or departing from the Crime Commission in answer to a summons.
The Commission will not publicly disclose or comment on the identities of persons who attend in answer to a summons.