A recent news story out of New Brunswick has raised questions about the role of publication bans in the age of citizen journalism. A 62-year-old Moncton man has been charged with kidnapping and a number of other offences. Because the charges include sexual assault, the victim's identity cannot be revealed. 

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 the story of the missing Moncton woman. 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.

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