Broadcaster Derryn Hinch to serve 50 days in jail after refusing to pay $100,000 fine Derryn Hinch will go to jail on principle over contempt of court COMMUNITY crusader Derryn Hinch says the prospect of serving 50 days in jail for not paying a $100,000 fine is frightening - but he will do the time to send a message. The outspoken broadcaster, now aged 69, has decided on jail instead of paying what he believes is an exorbitant fine for breaching a suppression order in the Jill Meagher case. He had 90 days to cough up the money but has not paid. In an exclusive interview with the Herald Sun, only hours before payment deadline, Hinch said his decision to go to jail was not based on the size of the fine. "While I believe it's the biggest personal fine ever, my decision is not about the money at all," he said. I couldn't care less about that. It's the principle of the matter. He was prepared to risk his own safety and sacrifice his freedom to send a message that the judiciary was out of touch with the community. "It's a huge decision," he said. Derryn Hinch says going to jail rather than paying a $100,000 fine for breaching a suppression order was a "huge" decision. You don't just wake up one morning and say, 'Hey, I'll go to jail.' But it wasn't that hard for me because it was the right decision. Hinch served 12 days' jail in the mid-1980s for naming the notorious Michael Glennon as a pedophile priest while Glennon was awaiting trial. In 2011, Hinch was sentenced to five months' home detention for naming two sex offenders, in breach of court orders, while addressing a public rally in the city. Hinch had received a much-publicised liver transplant only two weeks before he was handed home detention. Fit and healthy now, he is by no means treating his pending jail term lightly. "It's scary," he said. For anyone going inside, it's scary. Twelve days was scary. Fifty is going to be tough. Hinch said if and when the impending sentence was initiated, he expected to do the full 50 days. His 70th birthday will fall during the expected stretch. The media veteran said a recent case of lenient sentencing - where former magistrate Simon Cooper received a wholly suspended term for sex crimes - tipped him "over the edge" and cemented his decision to go to jail again. "I'm making a stand," Hinch said. The sentence Cooper was handed was not justice being done, and certainly wasn't justice being seen to be done. So I'm going to serve the first 50 days of a sentence (he) should have copped.