Keeping the media out

With reference to previous posts such as this one, the Ministry of Justice has published a consultation paper Confidence and confidentiality: Openness in family courts - a new approach, in which it states that it does not intend to take forward proposals to allow the media in to family courts as of right. Instead, it proposes a new approach which "will focus on improving the openness of family courts not by the numbers or types of people going in to the courts, but by the amount and quality of information coming out of the courts" (their emphasis). They therefore want to consult on a range of proposals, such as:

• Providing "better information to people involved in family proceedings, including to adults who were involved in family proceedings when they were children" and "to the public about the way decisions were reached in cases in the public interest";
• Developing "a new online information source, the Family Court Service Information Hub, to provide better information"; and
• Providing "for the media not to attend family court proceedings as of right, but to apply to attend on a case by case basis".
  

Time will tell whether these proposals, if implemented, will be sufficient to appease those calling for change (I doubt it), but I certainly agree that not letting the media in as of right must be in the best interests of children.