All entries for Tuesday 30 October 2007

Cameras in court

It’s against the law to make a recording of something that happens in court.

These numpties didn’t appear to get the memo.

What’s really stupid about the recording – which could land the camera-owner themselves in court – is that it doesn’t even show anything.

It makes you wonder what it’d be like if British courts allowed proper cameras in. The nightmare situation is something like the O.J. Simpson trial or Louise Woodward.

And I can just imagine news channels broadcasting images from court 24/7. I can’t think of anything more dull.

Having said that, I wonder if still images of defendants would be good. Perhaps they could only be released at the end of a case, and reflect their reaction to the guilty/not guilty verdict. It’d give the media something to salivate over for a while, without really putting witnesses etc. in the spotlight.

Some courts have allowed live transcripts to be provided at the end of big cases – perhaps that too should become possible for any case.

The video on YouTube might be the first breach of the contempt laws so far, but when everyone’s got a cameraphone, you can bet it probably won’t be the last. And next time, they might actually know what they’re doing.

: 30 Oct 2007 13:10 |  Tags: Court Reporting Media |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem