Page 195 - Law and the Media

Law and the Media
to organize such an application within 24 hours of the order being made. Although the media
do not have an absolute right to be heard, the court will usually exercise its discretion to
allow representations to be made.

9.12.2 Judicial review

Under common law, the High Court has always had the power to review the workings and
orders of inferior courts. This power is now found in the Civil Procedure Rules Part 54,
which sets out the limits of and procedure in relation to applications for judicial review.

There are two drawbacks to an application for judicial review. First, it is not available to
challenge orders of the crown court relating to trials on indictment. Second, the process can
be slow, so that by the time such an application is heard the relevant report might be
stale.

An application for leave for judicial review is separate to the hearing of the application itself
although in urgent cases they might be heard at the same time. When hearing an application
for leave, the court does not have jurisdiction to make an order under Section 11 of the
Contempt of Court Act 1981 (R v Westminster County Council ex parte Castelli (1996)).

9.12.3 Appeal under Section 159 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988

Section 159 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 gives ‘any person aggrieved’ the right to appeal
to the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal against the following orders made by a
crown court judge:

Under Sections 4 and Section 11 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981
Which restrict public access to all or part of a trial of an indictable offence, or
Which restrict reporting of all or part of the proceedings, for example under
Section 39 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.

The media are clearly within the definition of ‘aggrieved persons’. However, the procedure
under Section 159 relates to the crown court only and has no application to the magistrates’
court or the county court.

An application for leave to appeal must be made within 14 days after the making of the order
restricting reporting. The media company must serve on the Registrar of the Court of Appeal
(Criminal Division) a Form 20 notice (Statutory Instrument 1989/1102) seeking leave of a
single judge. Notice must also be served on the trial judge, his clerk, the prosecutor, the
defendant and any other interested person. If the matter is urgent, an expedited hearing of the
appeal may be possible. In urgent cases, the leave stage and the appeal may be dealt with at
the same time.
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