Page 182 - Law and the Media

Reporting Restrictions
Although youth courts are closed to the general public, they are open to ‘representatives of
newspapers and news agencies’ (Section 47 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933).
However, there are strict controls over what may be reported. Section 49 of the Children and
Young Persons Act 1933 states:

. . . no report shall be published which reveals the name, address, or school of any
child or young person concerned in proceedings [in a youth court] or includes any
particulars likely to lead to the identification of any child or young person
concerned in the proceedings and no picture shall be published as being or
including a picture of any child or young person so concerned in [such]
proceedings.
The youth court is one of the few types of court where all reporting is automatically restricted.
The limitations extend to defendants as well as witnesses under the age of 18 and apply to
reports, broadcast by radio or television (Sections 49(3) and 49(4)). It is frequently not
sufficient to simply leave out the name of the young person and his parents. Section 49 makes it
unlawful to reveal any matter that is likely to lead to the young person being identified. For
example, to name an adult present at court as the aunt of the defendant could amount to an
offence.

Only the proprietor, editor or publisher of a newspaper, or any broadcaster who has
corresponding functions to a newspaper editor, can be held liable for an unlawful report. It
is a defence for such a person to prove that at the time of publication he was not aware nor
suspected that the publication included material that contravened Section 49.

Reporting restrictions may be relaxed if the court believes it is in the interests of justice to
do so. The court may give detailed reasons for its decision to lift the reporting restrictions,
but it is not required to do so. The restrictions may also be relaxed after the young person
has been convicted. However, before relaxing any restrictions the court must hear
representations from the parties to the proceedings or any other person. The power to
dispense with anonymity under Section 49 should be exercised with ‘very great care, caution
and circumspection’. In McKerry v Teesdale & Wear Valley Justices (2000) the court went
on to say as follows.

It will be wholly wrong for any court to dispense with a juvenile’s prima facie right
to anonymity as an additional punishment. It is also very difficult to see any place
for ‘naming and shaming’. The court must be satisfied that the statutory criterion
that it is in the public interest to dispense with the reporting restriction is satisfied.
This will very rarely be the case.

Other courts
On occasion, young offenders are dealt with in other courts. If they are co-charged with an
adult, they will initially appear before a magistrates’ court. The magistrates may send the case
to the crown court or remit it for hearing to the magistrates’ court. In such cases, the media may
publish the young person’s identity unless there is a specific order to prevent this.
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