Reporting Crimes and Courts

Knowing criminal law is an essential skill for all journalists, as they have to know exactly what they can and can’t include in their reports in order to make them accurate, fair and to avoid committing contempt of court.

All journalists are at risk of being sued for their stories, therefore it is important that they know how to avoid that risk. Prejudice is one of the main things that can put them at high risk. Prejudice means ‘pre-judging’ something; if a reporter makes a statement about a person or an event based on false beliefs or before knowing the case well, they are most likely to be rightly sued for their report. It is important for reporters to get their facts right and to get to know the story well before reporting on it, as well as staying objective and open minded, trying not to pass the judgment too quickly.

Standard of proof in criminal law

For anyone to be convicted of a criminal offence, guilt must be admitted or proven in court ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
The court journalists can start reporting on the case when it becomes ACTIVE. That happens when the police make an arrest and when the person gets charged. However, the case is not active when an arrest is made with no evidence. In that case the suspect can only be kept under arrest without charge for 24 hours. By law, if they have not been charged within that period, the person has to be released.

The pre trial reports include 7 points of what a reporter can include in statements. That includes:
- Names of defendant, ages, addresses, occupation.
- Charges faced or close summary.
- Name of court and magistrates’ names
- Names of solicitors or barristers present
- Date and place to where the case is adjourned
- Any arrangements as to bail. ( Bail is a system by which a defendant is given his/her liberty until the next court case)
- Whether legal aid was granted.  

Criminal charges are divided into three main categories. Reporters are expected to be able to tell the difference between them, as each category requires different rules for reporting. There are some details that the Automatic reporting restrictions don’t allow to include in reports on some hearings at magistrates court. Journalists need to be able to distinguish those restrictions.

1. Indictable-only offences, which are the most serious crimes, punishable by the longest prison terms.  Possible sentence of 5 years or more. Examples for this type of crime would be murder, rape or robbery.

2. Either-way offences- such charges can be dealt with either at a Crown court or at Magistrates court. Magistrates can decide whether a particular case is a serious one which needs to be dealt with in Crown court, or if the magistrates can deal with it

3. Summary offences are very minor ones compare to the other two, they include crimes such as common assult, drunkenness. These are also relatively easy to deal with and they stay with Magistrates court.