The Attorney General brought contempt proceedings against five newspapers who had wriitten about two entries made to Buckingham Palace by Michael Fagan. Amongst the newspapers found guilty of contempt was The Sunday Times.
Held: The newspapers were guilty because the publications created a risk that the jury might be prejudiced.
Oliver LJ said: ‘The course of justice is not just concerned with the outcome of proceedings. It is concerned with the whole process of the law, including the freedom of a person accused of a crime to elect, so far as the law permits him to do so, the mode of trial which he prefers and to conduct his defence in the way which seems best to him and to his advisers. Any extraneous factor or external pressure which impedes or restricts that election or that conduct, or which impels a person accused to adopt a course in the conduct of his own defence which he does not wish to adopt, deprives him to an extent of the freedom of choice which the law confers upon him and is, in my judgment, not only a prejudice but a serious prejudice.’ He found the publication objectionable on the basis that The Sunday Times seemed to be ‘gunning’ for Fagan whose solicitor said ‘because it was the article which prompted him to decide that Fagan should be tried on indictment on the assault charge and that of driving away a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent. It was the direct and immediate effect of the article which determined Fagan’s option for summary trial and kept the assault charge hanging over him until October.’
Judges:
Lord Lane CJ, Ackner LJ, Oliver LJ
Citations:
Times 12-Feb-1983
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Attorney General v Michael Ronald Unger; Manchester Evening News Limited and Associated Newspapers Limited Admn 3-Jul-1997
Complaint was made that the defendant newspapers had caused a serious prejudice to a trial by articles published before the trial of the defendant in criminal proceedings. The defendant pleaded guilty to theft at the magistrates’ court after she had . .
Cited – HM Attorney General v MGN Ltd and Another Admn 29-Jul-2011
The police arrested a man on suspicion of the murder of a young woman. He was later released and exonerated, and a second man arrested and later convicted. Whilst the first was in custody the two defendant newspapers, the Daily Mirror and the Sun . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Media, Contempt of Court
Updated: 28 June 2022; Ref: scu.272780