Google has been given a talking-to by New Zealand's government after the company breached the country's strict suppression laws by naming the man charged with murdering British backpacker Grace Millane.
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The tech giant last week copped flak after sending out an email to some New Zealand users highlighting local trends that contained the name of the accused in the subject line, despite the country's courts ordering the 26-year-old could not be publicly identified yet.
The email also said there had been 100,000 searches of the man's name around the country.
Having earlier rebuked the British media's naming of the accused, New Zealand Justice Minister Andrew Little turned to the internet company, saying he would meet with its executives to explain the risks to fair trial rights it was posing, calling it "unacceptable".
Following a sit-down with Google's NZ boss, Caroline Rainsford, and senior policy manager Ross Young in Wellington on Tuesday afternoon (with legal staff tuning in from California), Little told reporters the company had agreed to look at its systems to avoid a re-occurrence.
"Publishing across borders might be the reality of the world today, but no justice system should be held to ransom and told that your orders to ensure a fair trial are no longer relevant. That is simply not acceptable anywhere," he said.
Young told media Google had acted when it had been made aware of the court order, four days after it was issued.
"We understand what the concerns are in this very sensitive matter. Google has acted on this situation. We have had a constructive discussion today ... explaining our processes and looking how we can address similar situations in the future," he said.
Little, however, said he had made it clear suppressions orders applied whether publishers had seen them or not.
"They pointed out the difficulty they have. I said 'I'm simply not sympathetic to that'. I've got to make sure orders handed down are respected the minute they're handed down," he said.
"It's up to [Google] to work out how to do that. If they don't I could look to our domestic laws to see whether they're effective, but if not I'll have to work with other countries."
Ms Millane was found dead on the outskirts of Auckland earlier this month after going missing in the central city on December 1 - the day before her 22nd birthday.
The man she was last seen with has been charged with her murder and was granted a temporary name suppression when he appeared in court for the first time on December 10.
Little earlier said naming the accused overseas risked breaching his fair trial rights and Ms Millane's family not seeing justice.
Such restrictions are not uncommon in the early stages of legal cases in New Zealand.
Australian Associated Press