Media Law Year Three - Lecture Two. Reporting Crime

Prejudice and contempt are the two main risks that journalists face when reporting crime.

A case becomes legally active when the police make an arrest, the issue of an arrest warrant, magistrates issue a summons, person charged. After this point, journalists must be aware of the risks of reporting certain information.

No prejudical content can be published before the accused has stood trial, this is to stop any information about the defendent(s) being made available to the jury whilst the trial is taking place. A case could collapse if information about the defendent(s) is in the public domain as this may sway jury members to a certain verdict if they know of it.

The Mikaeel Kular murder case has the potential for contempt. Mikaeel's mother Rosdeep reported him missing and his body was found and Rosdeep was charged. Mail Online recently published information about Rosdeep's lifestyle, it ran the headline "Party lifestyle of Mikaeel's mother who called herself the 'dancing queen'". The article has been criticised for its prejudical content, it may portray her in a bad light and deny her the right to a fair trial.

If the content of the article was contested legally, the Mail Online's defence would be the fade factor, this means that the information published could fade away from the press and public consciousness in the period between when the article was published and the trial. If the trial was in the next few weeks, I believe that this defence would not hold up, because a jury member could have read the article when it was first published and would most likely remember the content of it, therefore making it impossible for them to make a fair judgement.


Key stages of a trial

Prosecution opening
Prosecution witnesses
Defence opening
Defence witnesses
Judges summing up
Jury sent out and deliberation
Sentencing (may happen weeks or months after intial trial)


Three categories of offences

Indicatable - trial at Crown Court for serious offences.
Summary - Magistrates Court only
Either way - Defendent can choose to be tried at Crown or Magistrates Court


Information that can be included in a pre-trial court report

Defendent names, ages, addresses and jobs
Charges faced/summary
Name of court and name of magistrate
Names of solictors and barristers present
Date and place of where case is to be adjourned to
Bail arrangements
If legal aid has been granted or not


Magistrate powers

Six month jail sentence
Suspended sentence
Community orders
Conditional discharge (an agreement between a defendent and the court that he/she will not be convicted as long as they do not commit a crime within a specified time period.)