Romeo Jacques Cormier is taken from a Moncton, N.B., court. A court-ordered publication ban has not always been observed by some people using social media sites. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

The case of a Moncton grandmother who was missing for nearly a month has stunned the province but it has also highlighted the problems of court-ordered publications bans being obeyed with the dramatic use of social media.

Romeo Jacques Cormier, 62, has been charged with kidnapping, unlawful confinement, sexual assault, theft of money using violence, assault with a weapon and uttering threats.

The publication ban on this case means the media cannot reveal the woman's identity in connection with the sexual assault charges.

Traditional media outlets are used to adhering to publication bans imposed by judges, but the rise of blogs and the public's use of social media tools has meant the publication ban has been broken, even if inadvertently.

Brian Cormier, a Moncton-based columnist and social media user, writes about many local issues, including about the 54-year-old woman who was missing for nearly a month.

The details of how to report on the story in the first few hours had even this regular columnist confused.

"I mentioned something in complete innocence, mentioning her name and some of the charges and I got a message from a journalist, at the CBC actually, saying you can't say that you connect her name to the charges," Cormier said.

"And that was my education process. I immediately erased that and took it off line."

He said many bloggers and people on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are respecting the ban but he still sees the victim's name being mentioned.

Tim Currie, an assistant journalism professor specializing in online media at the University of King's College in Halifax, said he's surprised by the court-ordered publication ban.

"The ban would seem to me to misunderstand the role of social media today. People are talking about this story. This is a fairly big story in the region. And people are talking on blogs, on Facebook, on Twitter," Currie said.

The journalism professor said there has been little prosecution of bloggers reporting banned information so far and trying to charge them isn't the answer.