Magistrate’s Court restricts media’s access to hearings
The news media’s access to virtual sittings of the Magistrate’s Court has been restricted until further notice.
In a statement to BVI News, the Office of the Deputy Governor, which has portfolio responsibility for the local judiciary, said the only hearings the media will have access to are arrest matters until the court resumes face-to-face proceedings.
“Sittings of the Magistrate’s Court are hosted on the platform, Zoom and based on the current settings of the software, the magistrate is unable to control the media’s access to cases and information that may be deemed sensitive due to a delay in the internet speed,” the Deputy Governor’s Office said in response to questions from our news centre.
“This, as you can imagine, puts the confidence of the judicial system in a peculiar position if sensitive information is placed in the public domain due a media house being in a sitting in error,” he added.
The Deputy Governor’s Office added that the operations of the court, especially issues pertaining to security, falls within the scope of the senior magistrate.
BVI News learnt that the directive was issued by Senior Magistrate Tamia Richards.
Our news centre was further told the media will be updated once things go back to in-person hearings.
The Magistrate’s Court moved hearings online fully when it reopened on January 10 during a time when the COVID-19 cases were spiking in the territory.
The court was expected to resume in-person hearings in late January, but the high number of cases have prevented that from happening.
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“..due a media house being in a sitting in error” this only happens if you don’t pay attention to what is going on. I’m sure the Clerk of the Court can control this more easily than they can physical access. Something else is going on here.
“Sittings of the Magistrate’s Court are hosted on the platform, Zoom and based on the current settings of the software, the magistrate is unable to control the media’s access to cases and information that may be deemed sensitive…”
If that’s the reason for restricting the media that’s utter nonsense. The Court of Appeal, High Court, Criminal Court and the Commercial Court all use the Zoom platform (with multiple matters listed daily). They deal with highly sensitive matters on a daily basis. The Clerks are the ones who are tasked with letting persons into the hearings, and they do so with utter professionalism. It’s a simple matter of leaving individuals in the waiting room or putting them back into the waiting room if a case is to be heard in private. If the media is let into a case they’re not supposed to sit in on, it means that that the Magistrate’s Clerk is failing miserably in his/her duty and not paying attention to what’s going on. The Magistrate’s Clerk ought to have a list of cases and know which ones are private and which ones aren’t. Controlling access to the Zoom platform is as easy as A, B, C.
There is more to the story than they are letting on. Hm wonder why ..?
Nature’s Little Secrets, indeed.