Supreme Court of Victoria to Create Court Blog
Monday 28 October 2013 @ 11.30 a.m. | Judiciary, Legal Profession & Procedure
Victoria's Chief Justice Warren has outlined plans to revamp the Supreme Court of Victoria’s communication strategy to offset the gap in public access to quality information on court matters recently associated with the decline of specialist court reporters.
While delivering this year's Redmond Barry lecture at the State Library of Victoria, Chief Justice Warren referred to the number of specialist court reporters, saying the decline has resulted in courts “losing their main source of dedicated and coherent media coverage of court proceedings and justice sector matters".
The plans include:
- creating a revamped website;
- introducing video on demand,
- summaries of judgments; and
- capacity for the community to leave comments on news from the court.
It is envisaged that the new ‘multi-media hub’ will also feature a blog written by a retired judge, allowing the court to communicate directly with the public and to create greater community understanding around controversial issues. Journalists and academics might also blog for the court as part of what the Chief Justice described as a historic shift away from the judiciary's customary hesitancy to explain or defend its decisions.
According to Chief Justice Warren, the plan aims to offset the rise of social media and "citizen journalists" who she said were “not bound by any ethical code and typically published their work immediately without deference to an editorial opinion regarding the newsworthiness or accuracy of the content".
"Due to their high professionalism, experience and interest in an ongoing relationship with the courts, court reporters exercise care with the accuracy of information they publish."
While the quality of court reporters’ work was often very high, she said their numbers were falling and the traditional media was losing revenue as younger people sought information from Twitter and online news sites. However, in addition to the "sometimes offensive” language used on the internet, there appeared to be a belief among participants in online forums "that any kind of information should be distributed without restraint and that the customs and etiquette of society do not apply to the digital world".
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