Court reporting and local newspapers

This paper reported on a pilot study carried out by UWE Law and UWE Journalism in January 2018 into reporting of newsworthy stories at the Magistrates Courts. In one week, researchers saw every case heard in Bristol Magistrates Courts, coded these for newsworthiness and checked to see how many of these cases were reported in local newspapers. This supports the hypothesis that the reduction in dedicated local newspaper reporting of the Magistrates Courts negatively impacts on open justice and scrutiny of the courts