A journalist's genuine belief in a professional duty to report matters of public interest can constitute an extenuating circumstance under s 8(1)(c) of the Sentencing Act (NT) justifying a decision not to record a conviction, even where the offence was deliberate and committed with full knowledge that a permit had been refused. The appellate court's role in reviewing a sentencing discretion is to ask whether it was open to the sentencing court to exercise the discretion as it did, not to substitute its own view.
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