NZ Minister in favour of Live Court Coverage Idea

The NZ Minister for Courts Chester Borrows has approved the idea live and uninterrupted broadcasts of court cases according to a report from the Radio New Zealand Website although the Minister says there are no plans for live-streaming over the internet in the immediate future.

The idea was initially floated by NZ Law Society president Jonathan Temm at a criminal law conference recently where he said the role of television reporting in court cases needed review because it created a sensationalised version of court room events. According to Mr Temm the idea of live streaming of court cases, without editing or commentary, as used by the International Criminal Court at the Hague was a more preferable approach.

The biggest argument in favour of the live streaming approach is that it would increase public scrutiny of the courts. Various members of the legal profession are quoted as agreeing with Mr Temm commenting that television coverage of jury trials has become "an abyss of voyeurism undermining understanding and respect for the justice system appealing to the type of emotion which is the enemy of good justice.”

Possibly there is room for the same argument to be made in Australia  but having seen what the television reporting of question time for the Federal Parliament has achieved one might have cause to wonder whether television will help at all with increasing understanding of the system or in fact raise more questions.

Live coverage of court cases is also a very prominent feature of the American legal system and one would question whether it works to heigjhten awareness of the system or creates even more of a circus in that environment.

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