LONDON: The British government from yesterday will issue guidance for Twitter and Facebook users about how they can avoid “inadvertently breaking the law” by revealing banned information from court cases.
Legal advisories previously sent only to the mainstream media will be published on social media networks in recognition that newspapers and television no longer have a monopoly on news.
There are strict rules in place in Britain on what can be reported or publicly discussed about a court case, with heavy fines levied on those deemed to have prejudiced a fair trial, while it is also illegal to identify the victims of some crimes. But these rules are increasingly being broken by users of social networks, often through ignorance. Last week socialite Peaches Geldof tweeted the names of two mothers whose babies were involved in sexual abuse orchestrated by disgraced rock star Ian Watkins, the lead singer of the Lost Prophets.
Geldof, the daughter of Live Aid founder and Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof, apologised and swiftly deleted the tweets, which risked breaking the law protecting the identity of victims in sexual offences cases. Police are considering whether to press charges — although in her defence, it emerged afterwards that the mothers’ names were accidentally included on a courts listing website.
“Blogs and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook mean that individuals can now reach thousands of people with a single tweet or post,” said Attorney General Dominic Grieve, the government’s chief legal advisor.
“This is an exciting prospect, but it can pose certain challenges to the criminal justice system.
“In days gone by, it was only the mainstream media that had the opportunity to bring information relating to a court case to such a large group of people that it could put a court case at risk.
“That is no longer the case, and is why I have decided to publish the advisories that I have previously only issued to the media.”
Grieve said he hoped to “stop people from inadvertently breaking the law”.
“This is not about telling people what they can or cannot talk about on social media; quite the opposite in fact, it’s designed to help facilitate commentary in a lawful way.” AFP
