Magistrates' Court Reporting and Public Apathy

A recent article in Press Gazette has highlighted the worrying decline in press/media reporting from the Magistrates' Court.

Research conducted by academics at the University of the West of England revealed that only three news articles were published about cases at Bristol Magistrates' Court during one week in January 2018.

More than 240 cases passed through the court that week, but researchers saw only one working journalist during that time.

The study looked at the number of these cases reported by 40 local newspapers and media outlets serving the Bristol area.

Despite acknowledging the small, localised scale of their research, the authors of the report concluded that there is "some justification for the perception that court reporting at this level is in a poor state".

They added: "...the lack of coverage during the week is clear when compared to the hundreds of cases heard during that period, concerning people across Bristol and the surrounding area.

"Effectively, this local-level justice was being conducted invisibly."

The authors noted that many newsworthy cases never made it to print, with some only appearing in the briefest terms due to the availability of a press release.

They argue that the absence of independent journalistic oversight is at odds with the key concept of open justice.

Based on my experience, these observations are not isolated to Bristol. In the past month or so I have sat six days at a busy urban Magistrates' Court and on only one occasion have I noticed a journalist in court. He bobbed into court for only an hour for the purposes of reporting on a neighbour dispute that turned nasty, despite us having dealt with many other arguably more newsworthy cases.

One of the questions I was asked when I was interviewed to become a Magistrate was about the challenges that lay ahead for local justice. Having been the sole independent observer in many courts by that stage, I replied that I was worried about public apathy surrounding the role of the Magistrates' Court - based on my experiences up until that point the presence of journalists and members of the public was the exception rather than the rule.

I also said that I was concerned that some Magistrates' Courts had an austere attitude towards observing members of the public, the presence of whom was often a whispered topic of conversation between the bench and the legal advisor. The court should be warmly embracing any member of the public taking a keen interest in the delivery of local justice.

I would encourage anyone with a Magistrates' Court nearby to spend a morning in the public gallery and have their eyes opened to the issues affecting their local community.