The Bournemouth Daily Echo reports on court cases and breaking incidents that are in the public interest but there are laws and regulations that we must follow.

Reporters are trained in media law to ensure that articles comply with reporting restrictions in court reports and to avoid libel or defamation risks.

These legal risks can be raised in both media articles and its comment section, which can sometimes mean that the comments must be turned off.

CRIMINAL COURTS

  • Why do we cover criminal courts?

The public and the media have the right to attend open court hearings.

These reports act as a deterrent against crime and are fundamental to open democracy.

  • Why do we publish the name, age and address of people in court?

We publish the names of people who have appeared in court alongside their age and address to ensure we are identifying the right person who has committed the crime.

If we did not do this, we could be defaming another person with the same name.

Defamation is a criminal offence that could lead the newspaper being taken to court.

However, we will only ever publish the person’s street name and not a house number.

  • Why are people sometimes not named?

In court cases some people are provided anonymity by law.

This includes any defendants, victims or witnesses under the age of 18 (unless lifted by the court).

Victims of sexual offences have automatic lifelong anonymity, due to the nature of the offence. However, anonymity does not apply after death.

  • Why can’t I comment on a court case?

Comments on the website and social media will be turned off on active court cases to stop the risk of prejudicing a trial.

These rules apply to not just to the media, but the public too, so if you know the name of someone who has been granted anonymity, do not post it.

  • Why are the media not naming a person who has been arrested?

Identifying a person under police investigation could risk the person suing the media for defamation, if the investigation does not result in a criminal charge.

The media can only safely publish the name of an arrested person if it was officially supplied for publication by a government agency, such as the police.

In most cases the police will not identify a person until they have been charged.

INQUESTS

  • What is an inquest and why do the media report on them?

An inquest is held for any sudden, unexplained or suspicious deaths and are heard at a coroner’s court, which is different from a criminal court.

They determine how a person died and ensure that lessons can be learned.

The media cover inquests as a matter of public record, to ensure lessons can be learned from someone’s death and to clear up suspicions on the circumstances of someone’s death.

Both the press and members of the public are legally allowed to attend all open court hearings.

OTHER COMMENTS

For legal and staffing reasons, the Bournemouth Daily Echo is not a moderated site, although staff do regularly check complaints.

If the comment section begins to become abusive, hateful or out of hand then staff can make the decision to turn the comments off.

In order to avoid these issues, we will also turn off comments on stories that we know from experience are likely to cause problems.

Commenting on the website is a privilege and not a right and therefore staff will turn them off if necessary.