Member News
By Baroness Quin - 14th December 2011
Baroness Quin calls on the government to ensure the media does not prejudice fair trials.
The Leveson Inquiry into media ethics has, very understandably, been much in the news recently and has raised issues of huge public concern. One such issue which the inquiry has focused on has been the number of cases where innocent people, questioned and sometimes arrested because of circumstantial links to a crime, have then found themselves the subject of vilification in the press and have had their lives turned upside down, or even destroyed as a result.
Indeed, we can all imagine ourselves in such a horrific situation where, simply because of circumstance and coincidence, we might be linked to a crime and questioned by police and, before our innocence can be established, have found our characters blackened and besmirched in a media frenzy, the most personal details of our lives exposed and even the names of our family and friends dragged through the mire. Recent real-life cases where this has happened have included the schoolteacher Christopher Jefferies, caught up in the investigation into the murder of Joanna Yeates – who has given evidence to the Leveson Inquiry – and Rebecca Leighton, the nurse in the Stepping Hill Hospital cases. Less recent examples, but still very memorable, have included that of Colin Stagg, falsely accused of the tragic murder of Rachel Nickell.
Today in the House of Lords I shall be asking the government if it will consider legislation to strengthen measures against pre-trial publicity of this kind, in particular when it may prejudice a fair trial or undermine the principle of the presumption of innocence. There is already the Contempt of Court Act 1981 which is supposed to achieve this, but in the light of recent cases it has failed to do so, and a review of that Act would seem to me to be urgent. In addition, the Leveson Inquiry itself may suggest measures for the government to introduce in the future, and any proposals it puts forward will, I hope, be carefully considered and acted upon.
I am not, of course, suggesting that all pre-trial publicity is harmful or should be banned. I know that measured reporting, including the information that a named individual is being questioned, can sometimes help in encouraging and enabling people with useful information about the crime to come forward, and that such information can be vital in solving the crime concerned. There is, however, a huge difference between that kind of factual information being revealed and the frantic hunt for scurrilous stories about an individual who may well turn out to be completely innocent.
I welcome the fact that the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, has – in the role he is required to fulfil as 'Guardian of the Public Interest' – been prepared to bring prosecutions against the press in such circumstances. However, these prosecutions, while important, take place only after the offence – and consequent damage to the individual's life and reputation – have occurred. Ways of achieving prevention as well as a cure need to be strengthened if the essence of our justice system, as well as the fundamental principle of 'innocent until proved guilty', is to be guaranteed.
Joyce Quin is the former Labour Member of Parliament for Gateshead East (1987-97) and for Gateshead East and Washington West (1997-2005). She was raised to the peerage in 2006 and sits on the Labour benches.
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