Courts to open doors to cameras for first time

CRIMINAL court cases are set to be televised for the first time.

Only the judge’s sentencing remarks will be broadcast, however. Cameras will not be allowed to film criminals, jurors or victims.

The Bar Council, which represents barristers, warned the change risks making a ‘spectator sport’ out of sentencing – but Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said it would ‘improve public understanding’ of the legal system.

The move raises the prospect of sentencing in terror, murder and rape trials being televised. The first cases could be broadcast this summer.

It will apply to High Court and senior circuit judges, who must give permission in advance. At present, not even tape recorders can be used in Crown courts.

Cameras are allowed in to certain Court of Appeal cases and hearings at the Supreme Court.

IT is a well-known dictum: ‘Justice must be seen to be done.’ So we applaud the decision to put TV cameras in criminal courts.

Sweeping away legal stuffiness, the final moments of high-profile trials will be broadcast live. But to prevent intimidation of witnesses and jurors, only judges’ sentencing remarks will be screened.

Maybe it won’t be as gripping as the court scenes in crime dramas. But letting the public watch the law in action on television is a good thing.

Unsurprisingly, the hidebound legal profession is grumbling. Yet, before Parliament was televised, politicians moaned cameras would rob the institution of dignity.

They didn’t, of course. With the expenses scandal and Brexit squabbling, greedy and arrogant MPs did the damage themselves. Grandstanding judges take note.