Lord Justice Leveson, new President of the Queen’s Bench Division, is not the most popular judge amongst journalists and press barons.
So, in the week before the Privy Council meets to decide which system of press regulation will prevail, his detractors might take a moment to read a recent judgment of his in the Court of Appeal (Jolleys, R. v [2013] EWCA Crim 1135).
The appeal, by the Press Association, represented by the formidable Mike Dodd, was from a decision of a Recorder in Swindon Crown Court, purporting to have been made under section 39 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 preventing media reporting of information relating to the youngest (15-year-old) child of the defendant in the case (despite the fact that some of the information had been in the public domain prior to the making of the order). It was said that the court specifically prevented a reporter present from making representations prior to its making:
the order was put into place until it would be “properly argued” by counsel and “by somebody from the press if need be” [para 4]
This was, as Leveson LJ identified, in breach of rule 16 of the Criminal Procedure Rules, which provides that the court must not impose a rerporting restriction “unless each party and any other person affected…is present; or has had an opportunity (i) to attend, or (ii) to make representations”:
It cannot be suggested that the press were not affected by the order; indeed, it was specifically to restrict what could be reported that the order was made. This failure to allow representations at that stage represented a serious inroad into the respect owed to the press concerned to report criminal proceedings. [para 6]
Section 39 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 provides that
In relation to any proceedings in any court the court may direct that –
a. no newspaper report of the proceedings shall reveal the name, address, or school, or include any particulars calculated to lead to the identification, of any child or young person concerned in the proceedings, either, as being the person by or against, or in respect of whom proceedings are taken, or as being a witness therein;
b. no picture shall be published in any newspaper as being or including a picture of any child or young person so concerned in the proceedings as aforesaid;
except in so far (if at all) as may be permitted by the court.
And the Press Association successfully argued that “concerned in the proceedings” in section 39(a) could not be extended to a child who was merely the son of a defendant, but otherwise unconnected:
In relation to criminal proceedings, this can only include a child or young person who is the victim of an alleged offence, or the defendant or a witness; in civil proceedings, it could also include a child or young person on behalf of whom an action was being brought, for example, in relation to a road traffic accident or medical negligence. [para 12]
and this was supported by the unanimous view of the House of Lords in Re S (A Child) (Identification: Restrictions on Publication) [2005] AC 593 and the Court of Appeal in Re Trinity Mirror and others (A and another intervening) [2008] EWCA Crim 50 in which latter case the court had also rejected the proposition that a court’s inherent jurisdiction justified the making of an order to similar effect on Article 8 grounds
We must however add that we respectfully disagree with the judge’s further conclusion that the proper balance between the rights of these children under Article 8 and the freedom of the media and public under article 10 should be resolved in favour of the interests of the children. In our judgment, it is impossible to over emphasise the importance to be attached to the ability of the media to report criminal trials…If the court were to uphold this ruling so as to protect the rights of the defendant’s children under article 8, it would be countenancing a substantial erosion of the principle of open justice to the overwhelming disadvantage of public confidence in the criminal justice system, the free reporting of criminal trials and the proper identification of those convicted and sentenced in them [paras 32 and 33 of Re Trinity Mirror and others]
Leveson LJ identified other problems with the Recorder’s approach
he [also] approached the issue from the wrong direction. It was for anyone seeking to derogate from open justice to justify that derogation by clear and cogent evidence…The order was made when defence counsel asserted the likelihood of the defendant’s son suffering “the most extraordinary stigma through no fault of his own” which caused the Recorder to ask the reporter what the need for identifying the son was, rather than whether it was necessary to restrict his identification. [para 16]
and the point was made that a section 39 order, although generally obeyed in spirit as well as letter by the press, may not be the most appropriate form of order, applying as it does only to reports in newspapers, and in sound and television broadcasts: social media are not caught by it (“any further developments in this area of the law must be for Parliament”). This purported order had been “loosely” made, and Leveson LJ stressed that
Where such orders are made, they should be restricted to the language of the legislation
Mike Dodd had stated that the problems identified by this case were not uncommon, and the appeal was brought to
highlight what he contends is a continuing problem for journalists and the media, namely the willingness of courts to make unnecessary orders or to assume powers that they do not have. He submits that the courts all too often seem unaware of the guidance that is available and leave it to individual reporters (who will not be as versed in the law as the court, with the assistance of counsel, should be) to attempt to challenge the approach.
This concern was recognised
The requirements of open justice demand that judges are fully mindful of the underlying principles which this judgment has sought to elucidate
and Leveson LJ calls for – in those cases where “there is the slightest doubt, or any novel approach is suggested” regarding the appropriateness of a section 39 order being made – notice to be given in good time but also (without prejudice to the right of the press to advance its own arguments) for counsel “to research and develop the arguments to assist the court in a balanced way”.
Who said Leveson was an enemy of the press?
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