#soe09: More open courts need strong local press to work, says Lord Chief Justice

A more open court system can benefit the judiciary, press and public, but will not work without a well-resourced local press, the Lord Chief Justice has said.

Speaking at the Society of Editors (SOE) annual conference, the head of the English and Welsh judiciary said he had supported recent moves such as the establishment of the Supreme Court to allow greater press access to court proceedings as a personal objective.

But developments such as live broadcasting of court cases should not be welcomed without reporters present to record, analyse and criticise the proceedings.

"[T]he press should be able to enter into places where institutions are deciding things (…) what happens if there is no press to do it?" he said.

"I'm not comforted that we can emblazon open court on the screen if there's no reporter to walk into the court to observe and write up and where criticism is appropriate to suggest where it is to be made. If there's no reporter to walk in, the public interest is damaged."

The Lord Chief Justice suggested that some newspapers rely on council press offices too much and experience of local government reporting is being lost and court reporting is suffering, as titles are closed and resources cut back.

Listen to full audio of Lord Chief Justice's speech:


Commenting on the idea on the Press Association's proposed public service reporting scheme, the Rt Hon Lord Judge said he was not 'entirely happy' with the idea of state-funded court or local authority reporting, suggesting that the independence of the report could be affected.

"I don't have a commercial imperative but I would much rather that the media was able to resolve this in some way on their own. I'm troubled about the idea [of state funding], but I'm interested to see how the pilot scheme will develop and what ideas come out of it," he said.

The Lord Chief Justice called on the editors present to consider how technological change, in addition to the current economic crisis, will continue to affect legal proceedings and court reporting.

"This is not a matter of coming out of the recession. The recession is with us it has hit lots of people in lots of different ways. It effects every single thing that you do, but I'm not talking about the recession," he said.

"How are we going to expect a future generation who are taking information through a screen, learning through a screen, being taught through a screen to sit and focus and assimilate information that is served up not through the eye, but through the ear, the aural tradition of court?

"We may need an independent press to protect some of our freedoms from the pervasive technology and to point out what the impact of the pervasive technology might be."

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