A senior journalist with The Australian newspaper has been found guilty by
a Darwin court of entering Aboriginal land without a permit.

But 39-year-old Paul Toohey did not receive any penalty from the
magistrate, who said he sympathised with the cause of press freedom.

Toohey entered the Port Keats area on November 13 to cover the funeral of
a young man shot by police on the community oval.

Toohey's lawyer argued his client had a duty as an investigative
journalist to enter, despite being refused a permit several times.

Magistrate David Loadman agreed that Toohey was placed in a difficult
position and that the permit system potentially served to keep the
Australian public in the dark about recent events at Port Keats.

The magistrate said he had seen the effect of a lack of freedom in the
press when growing up in South Africa.