Open Season for Twitterers who are “representatives of the media” or “legal commentators” as Court Room Tweeting is given the all clear
20 Dec 2011
With effect from 14 December 2011, new rules have been set out for the use of social media in the courtroom.
Journalists in the UK can now use Twitter during court proceedings without requesting permission from the Judge before tweeting.
The Lord Chief Justice issued new practice guidance notes specifically for “the use of live text-based forms of communication (including Twitter) from court…”
Please click here to view the guidance.
The guidelines change the rule that phones had to be turned off during court proceedings. Now, it states that: “There is… no statutory prohibition on the use of live text-based communications in open court.”
And it goes on to say that “representatives of the media” or “legal commentators” may use Twitter or live, text-based communications from within the courtroom, as “…the most obvious purpose of permitting the use of live, text-based communications would be to enable the media to produce fair and accurate reports of the proceedings,” and it wouldn’t interfere with the proper administration of justice.
If a normal member of the public without journalistic or legal credentials wants to use Twitter while in court, they must get permission from the judge in order to do so, as their live-tweeting could possibly interfere with the case.
The guide notes that, while journalists may now use Twitter freely, it must be used as a text-based form of communication only: no photos or sound recordings are allowed in a courtroom.
It is a little under a year from the first time that the courts allowed Twitter to be used, amid the flurry of activity surrounding the WikiLeaks trial of Julian Assange. Now any representative of the media or legal commentator can tweet without asking for permission, assuming of course that “Reporting Restrictions” are not imposed by the court hearing a particular case.
For more information please contact Nick Goldstone.
