James Delahunty
21 Dec 2010 1:26
The Lord Chief Justice for England and Wales, Lord Judge (not a typo, that is his surname), has given the green light for tweeting inside a court room.
He said that using mobile devices to send tweets out for the general public's consumption during proceedings is fine if the judge believes it will not interfere with the administration of justice. The recording of sounds or images during a court hearing remains illegal.
The question around using social networking sites such as Twitter from a court room came to light as journalists used mobile handsets to tweet from the court room at a bail hearing of Julian Assange, founder of the Wikileaks website.
"The use of an unobtrusive, hand-held, virtually silent piece of modern equipment for the purposes of simultaneous reporting of proceedings to the outside world as they unfold in court is unlikely to interfere with the proper administration of justice," Lord Judge ruled.