Justice Mitchael Lee, arguably the best known judge in Australia thanks to the Bruce Lehrmann v Network Ten & Lisa Wilkinson court case, believes the media could do better in educating the public on the law system.
According to the Resolve Political Monitor (RPM) survey, many Australians don’t trust the law or the legal system.
This could be an educational failure, Lee suggested, to promote and restore confidence in the legal system people have to see it in action.
But the resources devoted to court reporting do not reflect the importance of the system.
“I've been involved in cases where the media coverage had no relationship whatsoever to what's going on,” Lee said on stage at The Women in Media conference.
“I’m troubled by that for a number of reasons.
“We don’t appreciate our legal system enough, [for example] the American legal system does not have an independent director of public prosecutions making prosecution decisions.”
This is why Lee live streams his court and encourages journalists to report on the legal system to ensure more access.
A suppression order, which is made by the court to prohibit the publication or disclosure of the content of particular proceedings, evidence or information, is one barrier.
“One way I think the media could do better is ensuring that courts and judges are held to account when it comes to suppression orders and things that interfere with principles of open justice,” Lee said.
“Now, any time a suppression order is made in my court at the federal level, or in almost every court, the news media has a statutory right to appear and challenge the order and be heard on whether the order will be made.
“I have deprecated time and time again, corporations and other litigants coming along with these swinging confidentiality orders, often by consent, which seek to prevent the publication of evidence.
“Unless there is an example where the safety of the person's involved or a person may have very serious health problems that makes the suppression order necessary.”
Australian media personality Ita Buttrose stated that money is also a barrier for journalists to get involved in more court reporting.
“Let me give you some good news, defamation filings are going down so hopefully journalists are going to be spending much less money on defending defamation cases over the course of the next few years,” Lee said.
“So don't let that line item in the budget be diverted elsewhere, that money can stay with the lawyers and they can use it to [fight suppression orders].”
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