One of Scotland’s top lawyers has suggested that allowing cameras into court could lead to the “Hollywood-isation" of the justice system.
Criminal defence lawyer Aamer Anwar, who has defended MSP Tommy Sheridan, also suggested that contempt of court laws should be extended.
He was quoted in the Daily Record saying:
Contempt of court is essential. It needs to be extended and rigorously updated to take account of technological advances. Otherwise we're going to have a rush to get the cameras into court.
With the greatest respect to the media saying they have a genuine interest, your genuine interest is not concern for justice. Your genuine interest is getting the cameras in there and opening the floodgates to the Hollywood-isation of our courts.
Donald Findlay QC, who represented mass murderer Peter Tobin, was also quoted saying there was a "crying need for regulation" of bloggers and social media commentators:
There are people who write what I am reliably informed are blogs, or diaries of some kind. You can't find them, you can't locate them but they can put on the internet 'This man is on trial today has 43 previous convictions. He's a villain, he's a rouge, he's a charlatan. He's done this before. It's your job to convict him'.
Apparently there is nothing we can do about it and the media will shrug their shoulders and say 'well that's the way it is'.
There is a crying need for regulation at the hands of this parliament to preserve the justice system, that I think is important to us all, much more than the media's ability to cover criminal trials.
They were giving evidence to a Justice Committee investigation into the role of the media in criminal trials.
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