Section 31Part 3 — General Provisions Relating to Criminal Investigations and Proceedings
Anonymity of complainants in rape, etc., cases
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31. (1) After a person is accused of a rape offence, no matter likely to lead members of the public to identify a person as the person against whom the offence is alleged to have been committed shall be published in a written publication available to the public or be broadcast, except as authorised by a direction of the court.
In this section — “rape offence” means rape, attempted rape, conspiracy to commit rape, aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring rape or attempted rape, and incitement to rape.
For the purpose of this section, a person is accused of a rape offence if —
a charge is laid alleging that that person has committed a rape offence;
that person appears before a court charged with a rape offence;
a court before which the person is appearing commits that person for trial on a new charge alleging a rape offence; or
a bill of indictment charging the person with a rape offence is preferred before a court in which the person may lawfully be indicted for the offence.
Nothing in this section —
prohibits the publication or broadcasting, in consequence of an accusation alleging a rape offence, of matter consisting only of a report of legal proceedings other than proceedings at, or intended to lead to, or on an appeal arising out of, a trial at which the accused is charged with that offence;
affects any prohibition or restriction imposed by virtue of any other law upon a publication or broadcast, and a direction under this section does not affect the operation of subsection (1) at any time before the direction is given.
If any matter is published or broadcast in contravention of subsection (1), the following persons —
in the case of a publication in a newspaper or periodical, the proprietor, editor and publisher of the newspaper or periodical;
in the case of any other publication, the person who publishes it;
in the case of a broadcast, any person having functions, in relation to the programme in which it is made, corresponding to those of an editor of a newspaper, SECTION 32 Criminal Procedure Code (2026 Revision) Page 26 Revised as at 31st December, 2025 c commit an offence and are each liable on summary conviction to a fine of one thousand dollars.