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Media has crucial role in lay judge system
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Remarks made by Masahiro Hiraki, the chief councillor of the Supreme Court's Criminal Affairs Bureau, piqued the interest of many members of the audience at last month's convention of the National Council to Promote Ethics of Mass Media.
“To ensure there is no prejudgment or prejudice imparted on lay judges, I'd like to ask the media to consider various perspectives when reporting on crime,“ the chief councillor said to the surprise of newspaper, broadcast and magazine reporters at the convention in Fukui.
The lay judge system will be introduced in spring 2009. As part of efforts to lay the groundwork for the system, the judicial authorities are seeking a drastic reexamination on how crime is reported in newspapers and other media.
Although delivered as a “personal opinion,“ the chief councillor's comment was the first public airing of a specific appeal by a judicial official to the media. One main point in the lecture was that “information provided by investigative organizations should not be reported as fact.“
Of course, treating all information as requiring confirmation should be a basic tenet of journalists. Many newspapers have been left with egg on their faces after reporting information that later turned out to be inaccurate. As a result, they refrain from reporting stories in which a specific person is considered a suspect based only on information provided by the police and other investigative organs.
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A striking request
Hiraki's remark was particularly striking in that he indirectly asked for the media to exercise self-restraint. He apparently felt citizens serving as lay judges could prejudge a suspect as being guilty if they see reports of a suspect's “confession,“ past criminal record, the environment in which they grew up and personal relationships, as well as observers' remarks.
Reporters who cover crime stories are committed to conveying the facts correctly and quickly to their readers. Their work aims to satisfy the public's right to know, and evoke an abhorrence of crime and raise awareness among citizens, leading to society as a whole taking measures to prevent crime.
Say, for example, a suspect is arrested for a crime that greatly affects society. There is no need to report on the suspect's past criminal record and the like if it has no relevance to this particular crime. But for the media to fulfill its mission, it needs to report vital details, including what the suspect tells police investigators, the social background in which the crime occurred and analysts' views.
We believe the public supports this stance. According to a recent Yomiuri Shimbun survey, nearly 90 percent of respondents said they “greatly trusted“ or “moderately trusted“ newspaper reports--a figure that has remained steady in previous surveys.
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Responsible reporting needed
We can understand that judicial authorities want to shield lay judges from making any prejudgment based on crime reports. After all, they feel such preconceptions could endanger a defendant's right to a fair trial. The media should avoid sensationalistic and muckraking reporting.
The foundation for ensuring a fair trial is a task that the three pillars of the judicial community--courts, attorneys and prosecutors--should spare no effort in tackling. However, the legal community is barking up the wrong tree if it thinks putting excessive restrictions on crime reporting will solve this problem, since these restrictions could infringe on freedom of the press and the public's right to know.
Hiraki's concern that citizens could be easily influenced by news reports might even reflect the prejudice that the judicial authorities harbor toward lay judges.
The introduction of the lay judge system was intended to reflect citizen's common sense in trials. Under this system, the importance of crime reporting and the basic posture of the media will remain unchanged.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Oct. 14, 2007)
(Oct. 14, 2007)