S v State of New South Wales (No 4)

In *S v State of New South Wales (No 4)*, the Court of Appeal of New South Wales considered an application to vary a non-publication order. The dispute concerned the extent to which the identity of the appellant, who was also the plaintiff in the proceedings below, could be published.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether the existing non-publication order should be varied to permit the publication of the appellant's true name. A secondary issue arose regarding the publication of images of the appellant, with specific conditions proposed for any such publication.

Macfarlan JA determined that the non-publication order should be varied to allow the publication of the appellant's true name. The court reasoned that there was no longer a compelling reason to maintain the anonymity of the appellant by name, and that the public interest in knowing the identity of a party in litigation outweighed any residual privacy concerns. However, the court also imposed restrictions on the publication of images, prohibiting any image that would allow the appellant to be recognised, while permitting images that did not accurately depict her appearance. The Commissioner of Police was granted liberty to apply for further orders concerning the publication of the appellant's name.