Background on Courts - State Courts are known as inferior courts. They are at the bottom of the court structure, also referred to as the hierarchy.
District Courts have a wide jurisdiction and can hear most criminal matters excluding murders and treason.
Supreme Courts are the highest court within any state and deal with any criminal mater within it's state. An
important aspect of Supreme courts is their ability to hear appeals from the state or district courts.
Appeals from the Supreme Courts go to the Federal Court System or the High Court of Australia.
There are several Federal Courts such as the Family Court or Federal Court of Australia. The Family Court is in all states and territories and deals with family matters such as divorces, marriage and custody cases. While Federal Courts deal with legislation and bankruptcy matters.
Also part of Australia's system is the
Quasi-Judaical body which is a tribunal or commission setup to look into a particular matter.
Today, Dispute Resolution has become a favoured way to solve matters as it's faster and allows decisions to be made in private between the parties involved.
The legal system in Australia consists of three parts - The Judicial, The Legislative and Executive.
- Judicial - Is the courts.
- Legislative - The Parliaments and the laws implemented.
- The Executive - Are Public service that enforce laws such as Police.
- Common Law in Australia is built upon the principal of precedence. Doctrine of Precedence requires courts to look to courts superior to them for decisions on similar cases when deciding the decision for the case on hand.
Quote on Open Justice - "Where there is no publicity there is no justice... Publicity is the very soul of justice."
Suppression Orders are sometimes issued by judges to limit the release of information related to a case. Failure to follow a supression order results in contempt of court, more specifically disobedience contempt.
Contempt of Court is concerned with ensuring the media do not become a de-factor criminal investigative body by solving crimes that may affect the official investigation.
The Media's role in covering court cases is to ensure there is no breach of powers between the legislative, judicial and executive.
When covering cases it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the what can be discussed at what points. The Journalist's Guide to Media Law by Mark Pearson and Mark Polden discusses a Crime Reporting Timezone.
- Before court or any suspect has been charged or arrested there is no risk in coverage.
- After an arrest - You may only discuss the bare facts and not disclose any information on the identity of the accused. Also need to be concerned with defamation against the accused who has been formally trialed.
- After charging - Court appearances or committal hearings should only be discussed if they are a matter of public interest.
- During the Trial - Reporting with care as too much can influence jurors and be seen as revealing deliberations of sub-judice contempt.
- After appeals and acquittal - There is no risk of sub-judice contempt.
There are five types of Contempt remembered by the acronym SSRCD.
- Sub-judice contempt - Preventing the court of a fair trial.
- Scandalising the court - Making a mockery of the justice system.
- Revealing Deliberations - Revealing information to jurors or speaking with jurors.
- Contempt of Court - Improper behavior within a court room.
- Disobedience Contempt - Not following court orders such as suppression orders etc.
There are three requirements for defamation to occur:
- Publication
- Implication
- Identification
The above three points must be proved by the plaintiff.
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Cases to Review...
Doe v. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (Page 21)
Jane Doe was raped by her husband. When the sentence was announced in court ABC radio broadcasted the stories but identified the real name of the husband. The
Judicial Proceedings Report Act 1958 makes it an offence to publish information identifying the victim of a sexual offence.
This case was the first time a journalist had been sued for journalists should also be weary to not reveal details that may be useable in identifying the victim, i.e. street names, suburbs, workplaces etc.
ASIC v. Rich (Page 66)
The NSW Supreme court dealt with the mdea and released documents that should of only been released under exceptional circumstances. The court allowed access to almost all the documents, leaving out just a few. A second application was lodged to access documents however this application was denied.
The lesson in this situation is documents released in open court are easier to access. Journalists should note that they have every right ot request information from a court and should expect access to transcripts from open courts. Access is rarely granted for charge sheets, pre-sentence reports and child protection reports.
Attorney-General v. Times Newspapers Ltd (Page 89)
The Sunday Times in London ran a series of articles about a drug company that's drug affected the development of baby's in the womb. The stories ran were related to public interest. Though the appeal process lead to the court suggesting the media shouldn't pre-judge a case if issues of public interest are relevant in deciding if a story is in contempt. This case concluded justice is better served after courts considered the matter.
E Hulton & Co v. Jones - Case
A newspaper published a story with a fictional character though the name actually belonged to a lawyer, Artemus Jones. The case was successful in proving the newspaper had defamed Mr Jones.
As the case meet the three points required for defamation -
publication, imputation and identification.
The man was imputated in the matter, and was identified by name with witnesses who identified the man in the article as being the lawyer, the story was also published.
AFL & anor v.The Age & Ors (Page 294)
The AFL had recently tested a few players under the Anti-Doping code which found 3 players to be subject to taking illicit drugs. The names were to be kept confidential however despite injunctions preventing the release media published the story with the players' names.
The lesson here is it breached a court order. The case also concluded that just because it's a crime doesn't make it public interest. Public Interest is not excusable if it reveals a crime affecting only one person.
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FOI - Freedom of Information...
Freedom of Information is to do with the public's interest in the administrative decisions of government bodies.
Although FOI is good there were several problems that meant FOI requests were denied.
- The request unreasonably re-directed agency's resources.
- Time delays were common.
- The cost of the application is a factor.
- Too many exemptions are included in the act.
In Queensland the FOI act is known as the
Right to Information Act 2009.
Keeping Confidences...
Privacy Acts are concerned with breached of Confidence. Confidences can be implied in circumstances. When interviewing a person it should be discussed what is information is
on record, on background or off the record.
Breach in Confidence - Implied in circumstances when discussed is is to do with the unauthroied release or use of information.
Ethics & The Law of Copyright - There are moral issues relating to what extent you can borrow someone else's work.
When reproducing the works of others the copyright period should be looked at. If Copyright still applies seek written permission from the license holder.
More on Defamation...
Defamation is a civil law but criminal defamation does exist.
The difference is
criminal defamation is the deliberate publishing of information when the accused knows the information to be false.
Defamation needs; imputation which reasonably referrs to the plantiff as the person discussed. It needs to be published to at least one other person other than the two parties involved.
Lee's case 1934 is an example of where a newspaper referred to the plantiff as a different person by using the incorrect salutation. A paper used the title Detective instead of the officer's real title Constable. In actual fact there ended up being two Detective Lee's that wern't actually involved in the story but where implicated as a result of a journalist not checking the officer's correct title.
Values that a Journalist should hold close... Honesty, Fairness, Independence & Respect for the rights of Others.
Common Law is also referred to as judge made law.
The High Court of Australia is the highest court of appeal and can change the outcome of a case by re-interpreting laws to suit a changing society.
Common Law - Case Law and Precedent are one in the same! Common Laws are laws that have come about or have been enacted based on court rulings. These laws are developed based on rulings that have been given in older court cases.
