Tweeting- Judge to issue guidance on court tweeter updates
The country’s top judge will issue legal guidance today on the use of Twitter to report live proceedings in court cases.
Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice, will give an interim guidance ruling on the use of Twitter and “electronic devices”, pending the outcome of a consultation process with the media on the issue.
The announcement that he would be giving the guidance was made last week and was prompted after supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange were banned from posting updates from their court case while a High Court judge was deciding whether he should be granted bail.
Mr Justice Ouseley, who went on to give Mr Assange conditional bail that day, ruled at the start of the proceedings that supporters and journalists should not send Tweets to give a blow by blow account of what was happening.
At an earlier bail hearing, District Judge Howard Riddle had allowed Tweeting from City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, which some commentators proclaimed as a legal first.
He said journalists could send messages as long as they were discreet and did not interfere with the judicial process.
Last week the judicial communications office said Lord Judge would issue new guidance for all courts at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today.
