Week 5 - The Justice Gap

Mansfield and Zander clash over legal aid funding

Professor Michael Zander came to the University of Winchester to speak at the launch of the new Crime and Justice Centre, I transcribed his lecture notes here.  During his speech he commented on the matter of legal aid funding, backing that our legal aid system is better then any other country. During the interview for the Justice Gap with Michael Mansfield I threw him the question on what he thought about this comment and he responded against what Zander had to say.

This week I realised how important it is to re-address the people you speak to and share the article you have written about them rather then shy away in hope they won't see what you reported. Mansfield responded to Zander's comments therefore we needed to give Zander the right to reply. The argument here is that Mansfield believes the system is broken, but Zander supports that the legal system still works. However, Zander wanted to make it clear that he did not think the cuts were a good thing, so an additional line that directly addressed the fact he thought the cuts were terrible was included.

Click the headline links or view the full article here. This week marked an increase in traffic to the website, peaking close to 1000 unique views daily.

Victims to be allowed to address court before sentence

Also this week, I wrote an article on the new code which gives victims the right to read out their personal statements in court. To push my article on from the recycled press release reports I wanted to get my own quotes, I also looked to localise the story in order to use it on WINOL. I wanted to add human interest to this story by speaking with a victim that would want to comment on the new changes. However I was unsuccessful at short notice when trying to get hold of a case study as there are several issues surrounding confidentiality.

After contacting the local Victim Support Group I set up a video interview with Carolyn Martin who works at the Witness Services at Winchester Crown Court who are there to support and protect victims and witnesses. The interview went well, and it was good to build a contact from within the court and introduce myself and make the publication more known to them. A short clip of the interview was used as an OOVACT on WINOL, but as the bulletin was light on stories this week, the news editor asked for approx 35 seconds to beef out the bulletin a bit more. This interview worked well both nationally and locally and therefore it was published on both the Justice Gap website, and WINOL.

Cameras begin filming courts for first time

Furthermore, on Wednesday I was working on a text story regarding the plans for cameras to film inside the courts for the first time. When this was first brought to my attention I researched it, and saw other newspapers such as The Guardian reported the proposed filming would begin on the following Monday if the legislation is approved. After phoning the Court of Appeal to get the latest information, I was informed that it had been approved and it was going to begin the next day. Speaking with the Ministry of Justice press office I was sent the latest press release which was embargoed until 6pm that day. This was a highlight for me, working on an article before another publication had reported on it, and before the breaking news was due to go live.

Using social media we tweeted the article as it was published dead on 6pm, using the hash tag #camerasincourt. The Justice Gap reported on this landmark change moments before Sky News did, which I was extremely proud of. Full article here. 

Click the headline links to view each article.