The death of the court reporter

With local press funding disappearing at a rate of knots someone is fast disappearing alongside, the court reporter.

British courts are very different to American ones on one important point.

No recording devices are allowed inside.

Public justice

The OJ Simpson trial...

Couldn't have happened here in the same way.

This means the only way to find out quickly what has been going on in the courts is to actually read court reports.

Valuable work

There was a time when a court reporter was a major feature of most local papers.

Ensuring justice was seen to be done, one of the principles on which our system hangs.

Court reporters still exist, but are dwindling in number.

They do one of the journalistic jobs I most admire.

While on the box

As they are cut to beyond the bone I find myself looking at the Judge Rinder show in a different light.

Sure, the show is entertainment, it is not the justice system as such.

However, increasingly it is offering an open forum to prompt reflection of fairness and justice where we hear less and less of the story unfolding behind the court room doors.

It is not a substitute, but if this is the way we are headed, perhaps it's needed.

The struggling local press

I was searching for an outlet for an article that I am trying to write on a local issue.

Only to be confronted with precious few outlets for such articles and a writing team on some of these papers that clearly consists of about three people.

Now, I know what that feels like to a degree having worked for a student news team of three, but that was only producing a paper about once every four weeks - my memory of these facts is now hazy.

It was an intimate experience and one which served to make me some friends who I admire to this day large numbers of who work in the media and publishing in some capacity.

It wasn't the best way of serving a community though really.

Journalism is best when you can get out to see people and that isn't always going to be possible if there aren't many of you and you rarely take on freelancers.

If this isn't a pitch for a job I don't know what is, but I'm actually trying to draw your attention to a wider problem hard working journalists with integrity who are being asked to do more and more for less, something worth remembering when Andy Coulson's name is being splashed all over the place.

It's unsurprising one of the unions for those media workers was out on strike recently.