COURT REPORTS.

Wairarapa Age, 12 August 1930, Page 2

COURT REPORTS.

TREATMENT OF SENSATIONAL CASES. OBSERVATIONS BY CHIEF JUSTICE. WANGANUI, August 11. At the Supreme Court this morning his Honour the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), in directing the Grand Jury, said that they had a right to make a presentment in matters affecting the administration of justice. It was not usual nowadays, but still they had an undoubted right. Similarly it was the right and duty of Judges to draw attention to possible evils in connection with the administration of justice, with a view to preventing their existence or their continuance if they exist. “There is,” added his Honour, “one matter upon which I do not invite a presentment, but to which I consider it my duty to draw attention. It must not be assumed that what I say necessarily has reference to any case now before you, but I am led to make my remarks because there happens to be on the list a case which, by reason of its somewhat sensational character, probably created at the time a good deal of public interest, because of a tendency on the part of newspapers, perhaps not unusual in our changing conditions of life, to give publicity to cases of a sensational character to an extent, or what is more important, of a nature, that may not be in the best interests of justice. The fairness of our administration of justice is one of our most cherished inherited traditions, a tradition that we should endeavour to hand down unsullied to the generations who come after us. It is a tradition which has been created not by the Judiciary alone nor even by the Judiciary with the assistance only of a fearless and independent Bar. Its creation and existence has been materially assisted by a free and independent Press, which has never hesitated fearlessly to criticise any matter affecting the administration of justice, -whenever such criticism appeared to be necessary. But how will it lie with the newspaper Press to criticise the administration of justice if it is itself the first to disregard the principles of fairness which are regarded as a basis in the system? It is an underlying principle of our system that the trial of an accused person should be conducted in a Court and only in a Court, and that the verdict should depend upon the evidence then and there adduced, and only upon that evidence. But the tendency nowadays—it has originated in other countries, and unless checked may become stronger in our own—is in sensational cases at least for the newspaper Press to publish all kinds of information, partly by means of .photographs, partly by sensational headlines, and partly by means of paragraphs or a connected story, relating to the life history of an accused person and to the incidents of the crime of which he is accused, and other matters, which information may conceivably affect the fairness of the trial. It is all very well to say that the arm of the law is long enough or strong enough to punish a newspaper if it goes too far; but by that time, in the particular case, the mischief to an accused person may have already been done. Anyway, I believe that on the matter being brought under notice as I am endeavouring now to bring it before them, the newspaper Press will exercise care and discretion in these sensational cases prior to the actual trial of an alleged offender, not in fear of punishment, but because of their desire to do nothing that may operate prejudicially to the fair administration of justice. The Press will, lam sure, accept my observations in the spirit in which they are spoken.”—(P.A.)