NO TO CAMERAS

THIS GOVERNMENT is to allow cameras into our law courts for the first time. Be it limited in nature, there is little doubt that within time the whole procedure will be turned into entertainment and, if popular enough , as with coverage of the Premiership,  will then be auctioned off and Sky will be the highest bidder.

                It is believed that it was Sky News’s special pleading (or so they like to think) that caused a change of heart in Downing Street. I like Sky; its news coverage is the best and outperforms  that of the BBC - which I find particularly pleasing.

                But the courtroom is no place for the cameras. It is, at its most serious, an environment where justice should not be seen to be done by the modern media. Both victim and the accused should have the right to a trial without potentially millions watching. It will become the modern equivalent of the public execution, where low motives will drive the viewer to watch. Motives which are salacious in nature and providing the main focus of  tittle-tattle the next day in the offices or on the factory floor.

                In  the case of a particularly despicable crime, like that of the Yorkshire Ripper, for instance. It would be sold like an electrifying  and nail-biting half- hour soap. Ex-judges will be on hand to explain the finer points of the law;  retired barristers will give their views on the performance of the both the defence and prosecution councils; and if there is a part of the procedures that the viewer finds particularly boring; then in order to stop them turning off or over; something original and entertaining  will be thought up to keep them watching, like, perhaps, a competition promising front row seats to the next ‘A’ feature trial with travel and hotel expenses being paid, for the full duration of the trial in whatever city it takes place.

                Of course, you may think me well off the mark and a candidate for the funny farm. But once you take the first controversial step, then, as we know, the road to Hell is always paved with good intentions, and various unintended consequences will quickly emerge.

I FIND IT REPELENT that the media should be allowed to turn the courtroom into a production. Showboating of all sorts from all parties within the courtroom will, over time, transcend the boundaries the politicians sought to impose at the beginning . Those accused and found not guilty, will no doubt find themselves invited on to the next ‘reality’ TV show.

                Even those found guilty by the court, but whose persona appealed to the public could find themselves becoming a celebrity. Of course this would only happen in cases not involving violence: but even witnesses with the right personality can find themselves on the celebrity merry- go-round.

                Very soon people we will be committing crimes in the hope that their trial will be televised, in order that they can perform before the public…a criminal X Factor could be born. Which means that all sorts of bizarre criminal acts will be committed by petty criminals in order to attract the attention of the Sky Trial – for this is what it will become.

               

SKY KNOWS THAT what they hoped for has been rejected, but they now have a foot in the door; or a camera in the court. From now on, the politicians have little excuse to deny them further infiltration into the court during a trial. It is only a matter of time before we not only become like America, but we will soon overtake America because we will demand new procedures that the politicians dare not inhibit for fear of offending the popular will.

                America is of course a much larger country; it is divided into states, some of which are larger than the UK.  We, on the other hand, have to take the popular will far more seriously. In America, Washington, is the centre of government, and leaves the everyday problems of each state to the different state legislatures.

                We in this country will, because of our celebrity mores, foster from whatever quarter it comes, further additions to the superstar  family which sadly the UK has become infatuated with; particularly among the women, but also, sadly, the men.

                We should never allow the TV cameras into the intimacy of the court room where justice is enacted. Where evidence is tested and the jury make their decision based solely upon such evidence.

                There must be one institution that remains free from the modern media, and our courts must be that institution. The modern media brings with it all sorts of ideas that will ultimately lead to the ruin of a fair trial if it is given the opportunity so to do.