TV cameras could be allowed in courts despite fears of hearings becoming a ‘spectator sport’

TV cameras could allowed in courts if new legislation is passed.
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Draft legislation has been laid down in Parliament which would allow cameras to broadcast judges' sentencing remarks from Crown Courts.

It will now be considered by MPs and peers.

Filming has been allowed in certain Court of Appeal cases since 2013, and the Supreme Court, the highest court in the UK, also videos proceedings.

Sheffield Crown Court. Sheffield Crown Court.
Sheffield Crown Court.
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Moves to allow a judge's reasons for passing a certain sentence in a criminal case have been under consideration for several years, and the new law would allow them to be broadcast for the first time.

Barristers have warned against making court proceedings ‘a spectator sport’, and over the risk of judges facing a backlash from members of the public who lack the context of a full criminal trial.

Only the sentencing remarks would be filmed and victims, witnesses, jurors and court staff would not be filmed.

Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland said: “It will ensure our courts remain open and transparent and allow people to see justice being delivered to the most serious of offenders.”

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A three-month pilot has already been carried out where sentencing remarks were recorded in eight crown courts on a not-for-broadcast basis.

Amanda Pinto QC, chairwoman of the Bar Council, said: “This initiative will help people understand the realities of our criminal justice system.

“However, given that it is only the judge's sentencing remarks that will be televised, the public may well not fully appreciate why a particular sentence has been given without seeing the evidence presented during trial, the mitigating factors and other relevant information, such as probation reports.

“This is especially the case in a trial where the judge will have seen and heard the victim, the defendant and other witnesses, but the judge's evaluation of them may not be clear from the televised hearing.

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“We must guard against unwarranted attacks on judges where the sentence isn't popular with the public.

“‘Enemies of the People’ type proclamations, where judges have been personally attacked and their independence questioned, simply for doing their job, are completely unacceptable.

“Sentencing must not become an armchair, spectator sport.”