The Government decision to admit journalists to family courts as of April is not all good news for the press, according to the Independent on Sunday.
It reports that the decision, revealed in November, will mean the reversal of the Clayton versus Clayton appeal court decision of 2006 which allowed parents to waive their anonymity, and that of their children, in order to publicise concerns over custody rulings.
Under the new rules, family courts will be subject to the same rules as youth courts – meaning children, and by extension their parents, cannot be named in the press.
Simon Clayton, a father who was involved in a high-profile custody battle, told the Independent on Sunday: “The implications of this for papers is bad – editors are only interested in a story if it had a human dimension.”
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