philamena
Well-Known Member
lachlanandmarcus is correct in that a decision about whether a fair trial can take place is taken in the round. Contempt of court may only usually apply to published comments in terms of prosecution (and forums and other open media like them are a grey area but certainly NOT immune) but a decision on whether or not a fair trial can take place has to take into account everything that's been said in the public sphere. So yes, it's unlikely given the limited number of people who read this forum, but comments on here could contribute to such a decision. The two things are different.
Much of the reporting around the Jo Yeates case was a bloody disgrace (and raised serious questions about the flow of information to certain papers) but websites like MSN news are hugely lucky they didn't get clobbered for some of the awful stuff they allowed to happen on their message boards: it's possibly only because the tabloids did even worse that attention was diverted.
And the fact someone's been charged means you need to be MORE careful not less. The case is active as soon as someone's been arrested, but charges bring a possible trial date closer... and the proximity between comments being published and a jury being selected is a key factor in deciding whether a juror could be prejudiced (ie if a trial is likely to be ages away for whatever reason, the risk gets marginally lower than if it's just a matter of usual CPS timings).
Much of the reporting around the Jo Yeates case was a bloody disgrace (and raised serious questions about the flow of information to certain papers) but websites like MSN news are hugely lucky they didn't get clobbered for some of the awful stuff they allowed to happen on their message boards: it's possibly only because the tabloids did even worse that attention was diverted.
And the fact someone's been charged means you need to be MORE careful not less. The case is active as soon as someone's been arrested, but charges bring a possible trial date closer... and the proximity between comments being published and a jury being selected is a key factor in deciding whether a juror could be prejudiced (ie if a trial is likely to be ages away for whatever reason, the risk gets marginally lower than if it's just a matter of usual CPS timings).
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