When it comes to court rooms, electronics communication is a must during proceedings as reporters use different methods including email, text messaging or tweeting to send information out about what’s going on inside the court room. This enables news channels and news agencies to cover the proceedings in real time, which often causes problems for judges. Therefore, Quebec judges chose to ban electronic communication in court rooms unlike other area of Canada. As a result of that from today (Monday, April 15th) no texting, tweeting or emailing will take place in the Quebec court rooms. Canadian press has reported that before implementing this ban in the Quebec court rooms, judges had a debate that lasted many months after which they finally decided to put the new rules into practice.
“A spokeswoman for the Quebec Court says judges from her tribunal as well as Superior Court and the Court of Appeal drafted the guidelines together. They came after months of discussions.”
According to the directive, “It is prohibited to broadcast or communicate text messages, observations, information, notes, photographs, audio or video recordings from inside the courtroom to the outside.”
The response regarding the directive of Quebec judges was mixed, as a lawyer said that social media has not reached that level yet to be used in the court room. On the other hand, the president of Quebec Federation of Journalists, Brian Myles did not look happy with the decision, as he said that courts have made the decision in a hurry and they have imposed the ban on electronic communication after facing just a few technology experiences.
Myles also said that judges did not even consult with anyone regarding this decision. Since video recording or filming is already banned in the court rooms, so email, texting and tweeting or communicating on social websites were the only means left for journalists to forward the court room information in real time to their news agency or channel.
“Twitter is a tool of the 21st century and it allows journalists to bring the citizen into the courtroom,”
[…]
“When you deprive reporters of this tool, you deprive citizens of useful information that allows them to understand better the justice system.”
However, Bergeron, a spokeswoman has divulged that nothing is confirmed yet, as “each court will deal with its own experiences and we’ll decide from there if the rules need to be tweaked.” Therefore, next time folks who take electronic devices with them to the Quebec court rooms should keep them on silent mode for now.
Source: iPhoneinCanada
Photo: Newsana
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