Page 193 - Law and the Media

Law and the Media
hearing, that is to say it will be a ‘paper hearing’, meaning that no formal court hearing will
take place. The decision of the Court of Appeal is final (Section 159(1) Criminal Justice Act
1988).

Where an order to exclude the public is made at the trial itself, the media may apply for leave
to appeal against the order by notice in writing as prescribed in Form 20 within 24 hours of
the order and the court must adjourn the trial for 24 hours to allow any appeal (Criminal
Appeal Rules 1968).

9.11 Material made available on disclosure

Documents that have been disclosed by parties in civil proceedings can only be used for the
purpose of the proceedings in which they were disclosed, unless:

The document has been read out to or by the court or referred to at a hearing that
has been held in public
The court gives permission, or
The party who disclosed the document and the person to whom the document
belongs agree to its wider use.

(Civil Procedure Rules Part 31.22(1))

This duty of confidentiality means that documents that have been disclosed between parties
to litigation can only be copied to the media if one of the exceptions apply. Documents are
to be treated as read to the court if they are read only by the judge but subsequently referred
to in his judgment which is given in open court (SmithKline Beecham Biologicals SA v
Connaught Laboratories Inc (1999)). Documents will also be treated as read to the court if
they are referred to in open court by the judge or the lawyers although not read out or referred
to in counsels’ skeleton arguments (Derby v Weldon (1988)).

The court may make an order restricting or prohibiting the use of a document that has been
disclosed even where the document has been read to or by the court or referred to at a hearing
that has been held in public. An application for such an order may be made by any party or
any person to whom the document belongs (Civil Procedure Rules Part 31.22(2) and (3)).

9.12 Press challenges to reporting restrictions

The court sometimes makes orders restricting the reporting of proceedings on inappropriate
grounds. They are frequently made following an application from defence counsel, and are
occasionally nodded through unopposed. There are other instances where, although it is
appropriate to postpone publication of certain material, the order is too wide and amounts to
a ‘blanket ban’ or a permanent restriction.
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