5 Freedom of the media and public
trust in the judiciary
107. In our Report on the Green Paper we expressed
our concern about the effect of the proposals on the media, on
court reporting and on public trust and confidence in the judiciary.[73]
The Government's main substantive response to these concerns was
in relation to the accessibility of closed judgments for special
advocates. The Government said that by the end of the summer there
would be in place a closed database of head notes of closed judgments.
Otherwise, the Government's response to our concerns was to disagree
that the proposals caused concerns about the transparency and
public trust in the system. The Government believed that the proposals
would "enhance transparency and public trust, not undermine
it".[74] We are
much less sanguine and would prefer to see provision in the Bill
to address what we consider to be very serious concerns about
the impact of the Bill on the freedom of the media and public
confidence in the administration of justice.
108. We recommend that the Bill be amended
to require rules of court to provide that the media be notified
of any application for closed material procedures to be used,
to ensure an opportunity for the media to make representations
on that question, and to provide a mechanism for a party to apply
for a closed judgment to become an open judgment.
109. The following amendment would give effect
to this recommendation:
Clause 10, Page 7, line 15, after sub-clause (2)
insert new sub-clause—
'( ) Rules of court relating to section 6 proceedings
must make provision
(a) requiring the court concerned to notify relevant
representatives of the media of proceedings in which an application
for a declaration under section 6 has been made,
(b) providing for any person notified under sub-section
(a) to intervene in the proceedings,
(c) providing for a stay or sist of relevant
civil proceedings to enable anyone notified under sub-section
(a) to consider whether to intervene in the proceedings,
(d) enabling any party to the proceedings or
any intervener to apply to the court concerned for a determination
of whether there continues to be justification for not giving
full particulars of the reasons for decisions in the proceedings,
and
- requiring the court concerned, on an application
under sub-section (d), to publish such of the reasons for decision
as the court determines can no longer be justifiably withheld.'
73 JCHR Report on the Green Paper, chapter 6. Back
74
Government Response to the JCHR Report, p. 15. Back
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