Learning about the dangers of court reporting is essential to any journalist becasuse no matter what area of journalism you decide to work in it is likely that you will come accros a story in your career as a journalist that will involve a legal case in court that has restrictions on what you can report. If the reporter does not understand or know these restriction then they could find themselves and the company they work for are in a lot of trouble which could result in a prison sentence.
An example recently would be the one found on the Press Gazette of the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail who were both fined for contempt of court for a story they wrote. This is a lot of money to pay for a single story as a result of not following court reporting rules.
The two key issues with court reporting is prejudice and contempt; prejudice could influence a jury to make a decision by publishing material or a story about someone who may not have done anything wrong. This prejudice could lead to an unfair trial if it is read by the jury who are meant to only look at the facts. This prejudice is contempt of court and it is essential it is avoided by reporters.
is a risk to publish such material. An example of prejudice even though at this stage this case was not in court and therefore was not contempt of court was that of Chris Jefferies who was made a villan by several tabloid newspapers over the murder of Joanna Yates. However it turned out that this man was not the murderer and instead sued the papers who had printed his name, address and pictures all over the front pages defaming him. Had this information been published when a case was active then the reporters would have been done for contempt of court.
When a police statement is made, the facts that police have given can be used, but only these facts to avoid legal issues such as defamation. Anything given off- the record could give context to an event or help the report but must not be written in the story itself. Interviews could be included with those involved with them giving some of the details of the event.
As the police investigate and make an arrest the case then becomes active and anything the police say can be reported, but If the reporter was to go off on his own and find facts about what happened and try to identify who the peoplewho have been arrested are then they will be done for contempt of court, as such facts could be used in the court and if the jury have read similar or contrasting facts or the profile of a person in the court then these things could sway their verdict and make for an unfair trial.
When someone is arrested and charged your script has to become much more open minded; the interview and lots of detail would have to be taken out and instead replaced perhaps with an interview with shocked neighbours who have said they didn't believe that anything like this would happen in their neighbourhood, information about the place itself and maybe even the shop where it happened but not nay detail that could affect the outcome of a trial, or anything that would later be used in court. The script should also refer to 'the accused' rather than 'the robbers' or 'the murderers' because at this point they are still innocent until proven guilty in a court. The identity of those involved must not be given away at this stage.
It is better for journalists if someone who is accused of committing a crime is not arrested for a long time as this gives a lot more time for a 'media hype' suurounding the story and gives plenty of time to give detail about the story before the court case.
The story can then be updated on the first day of the court case but at this point it becomes very stripepd down and cannot include much detail at all. What can be identified is;
Identity, names and ages of those accused. address to postively identify the defendants, what they have been chanrged with, what court they are in, any bail application, names of solicitors and where the court will be ajourned to. Tabloids push these boundaries as far as they van but risk contempt of court. They are looking to get as many readers as possible with a juicy story and therefore take this rsk.
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