Overturning a Section 39 order

Getting up to speak in court is not something us journalists like doing, we’re much happier on the press bench with a notepad for company and maybe a cup of coffee during the odd break to keep us going. But yesterday myself and trainee reporter Julia McWatt found ourselves trying to overturn a Section 39 order that stopped us reporting the name of a child in a murder case, and this in turn stopped us reporting the name of the mother who is charged with the murder of their child, and the father who is charged with causing or allowing the death of a child.

Bear with me and I’ll explain how we managed to change the judge’s mind and get him to overturn the reporting restriction, and cause South Wales Police a fair amount of bother in the process.

We first reported on a fire in Severn Grove, Canton, in the summer when Ciaran Jones and Simon Gaskell worked their balls off to get the detail on a house-fire where the body of a 7-year-old boy was found. This was Yaseen Ali. At first it was treated as a tragic accident and we had a number of facts, such as the parents names, the twin daughter’s name and school attended released and published.

On the morning of 8th December 2010 the mother and father were charged, the mother with murder and the father with causing or allowing the death of his child, so Julia went off to cover the hearings – first at magistrates court and then at crown court. Arriving she found a Section 39 order had been imposed, stopping us reporting the name of Yaseen’s twin sister or any details which may lead to her being identified. This was under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 which states:

These orders allow a court to order that no report of proceedings in any court shall “include any particulars calculated to lead to the identification, of any child or young person concerned in the proceedings, either as being the person by or against or in respect of whom the proceedings are taken, or as being a witness therein”. Source: Press Gazette.

Julia bravely challenged the Section 39 in magistrates court, but was unsuccessful. She spoke up, but the court wasn’t interested. He clearly wasn’t aware of the scale of public interest of the case and previous media coverage (not just by ourselves, but other outlets).

We pulled together online articles about the case which clearly showed how the name of the twin and the parents were all in the public domain. Withholding the name we said unfairly hindered our reporting of the case and would deny the community of Canton, and the wider Cardiff community, from knowing what had happened in Severn Grove.

Armed with a brown envelope, stuffed full of online print-outs of stories (god bless the Internet) and a letter crafted from our lawyers at Canary Wharf, I made it to the courtroom to find the hearing had finished. Damn. Approaching the clerk, who seemed to think her work was done for the day, I asked her to reconvene the court and we wished to challenge the Section 39 order.

Copies were made of our evidence for the judge, the defence and the prosecution. I prepared a short statement as to why we wanted the order lifted. The prosecution and the police were stunned at how much information was already in the public domain, they seemed to forget proceedings were not active when the fire happened and Yaseen was found.

The judge entered and said he would find it hard to justify his Section 39 order, and after a few comments about the state of the press and how we had no regard for the wellbeing of children, he agreed to lift it.

So a few lessons learned:

- If you feel you can challenge an order, challenge it

- Make sure you can demonstrate the public interest and whether facts are already available in the public domain e.g. the name has been published elsewhere

- Every case is different, don’t use a copy/paste template

- Don’t be afraid, if you are asked to speak they will listen. It’s easy to be intimidated by the courtroom.

- Don’t get angry, try to engage the prosecution/defence in conversation and judge their mood and attitude

There’s a very useful guide on Press Gazette about preparing for challenging a court reporting restriction and it’s well worth a read. If you’re a student journalist, read up on your law. If you’re a working journalist, remember this is what we’re there for in court – we are the eyes and ears of the public and it’s only right they should get to know what’s happening in the courts.

Here’s the story we ended up publishing on Thursday 9th December 2010.

Image credit to Matthew Griff

What do you think about the case? Have you challenged a Section 39 before or another reporting restriction? What advice would you give? Let me know in the comments below

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