A Victoria judge has ruled against a publication ban in the first of two murder trials in the beating death of 14-year-old Reena Virk.

Seventeen-year-old Warren Glowatski is charged with second degree murder and aggravated assault in the 1997 killing.

Supreme Court justice Malcom Macaulay ruled against the publication ban before he began hearing the evidence against Glowatski.

Lawyers for both the crown and defence did not want any of the testimony from Glowatski's trial made public. On Friday, they asked a Supreme Court judge to impose a sweeping publication ban.

They say evidence from this case could influence the trial of a second youth, a 16-year-old girl, who'll face murder charges this fall.

However, the judge noted the venue has been switched to Vancouver and the trial is still seven months away.

Justice Macaulay said he'd be more concerned if there were back-to-back trials in Victoria.

Lawyers for media outlets in Victoria and Vancouver argued against the ban. They said the girl's trial will occur seven months later and has been moved from Victoria to Vancouver.

Glowatski and the other accused known as KME are alleged to have killed Virk in November 1997.

The 14-year-old was killed after a savage beating by a group of other teenagers, most of them girls.

Without the ban on publication, Victoria residents will hear new details of the shocking attack and murder as evidence is heard.

Previously, interviews with several of the teens involved in the attack, including an account of how Virk died, were published in an American magazine but the article was not distributed in British Columbia.