Thread:Comments:Scottish Justice Secretary 'acutely aware of unusual publicity' in Kular case/UK & Commonwealth tradition v. US laws/reply (8)

Ok, let me make my position clear: I agree with the BBC and other named organizations from the previous article who went ahead and published a photo and/or identity of the charged and I don't believe journalists should wait for a conviction to publish public records. I certainly don't believe that journalists should be convicted for libel if a person is declared innocent because all the journalists did was to publish public record. Why should journalists be held accountable for law enforcement's incorrect or shoddy decision making? Charge the police with libel if you want to hold somebody responsible. Ah but they are protected! Journalists deserve equal protection unless they published falsehoods or were careless or had actual malice against the party.

The Scottish law as I understand it from your published article is a violation of freedom of expression under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and most media rights groups worldwide would downgrade the UK system for its weak contempt and libel standards that are used to prosecute journalists or media organizations for serving a necessary role in society and furthering transparency. This is why the US has libel tourism laws to protect US journalists from the UK system. I would support any Wikinews publication of the person's photo and/or identity in this case, I think Wikinews should use its global position to make information available.

The excuse of public interest on the courts' behalf is weak and unproven. The same issue of claiming public trust is made in many different situations, such as the government's conduct of foreign affairs, national security, and war that allows for abuses of power. Preventing the abuse of power is especially important to all citizens in day-to-day operations of law enforcement and the courts. Those entities in particular should not be exempt from such standards of openness, to which we hold the executive or legislative branches. The public has the right to know about what is being done on its behalf and that function is the responsibility of any government and also journalists, including Wikinews. If the system cares about the rights of the accused, then it should make the standards for burden of proof of prosecution as strong as possible and not limit the rights of expression, which is not proven to have an effect and not ineffective and unrelated to delivering justice (determining guilt or innocence). Preventing such publication merely contributes to public ignorance and complacency when rights are violated.

From my position, the article is informative, but I would be interested in interviews with those organizations about their decision-making process. If they are violating Scottish laws, ask why. To Wikinews, I say, why aren't you publishing this information and doing your job as citizen journalists!