“LEGAL AID FURY Woman fed boy, 3, poison while plotting to take him to see ISIS jihadi father in Syria but was given public cash in battle to keep any alleged terror connections secret: Taxpayer-funded legal aid went on lawyers representing her as she tried to stop Scotland Yard gaining access to her files” lead the Sun on Sunday headline. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Tag: Transparency Project (Page 4 of 5)
The purpose of this update is to correct, clarify and comment on media reports of family court cases, to explain and comment on published Judgments of family cases and to highlight other transparency news. Continue reading
On 15 September 2016 the Ministry of Justice opened its consultation into “Transforming Our Justice System”. The 36 page document, accompanied by a statement by the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals, sets out a “vision” for a radical overhaul and major financial investment in courts and tribunals in England and Wales. Continue reading
This week Christopher Booker, chose this as his topic for his Sunday Telegraph column “The terrifying tale of how Britain’s most secret court imprisoned a grandmother“. This is of course a very worrying headline. The article itself is also likely to raise concern about this secretive court, that goes about locking up poor defenceless grannies. Continue reading
There are many things wrong with the way the national press reports legal matters, especially matters relating to the Family Court and the Court of Protection. But they are not going to get better unless and until the so-called regulator, IPSO, takes firmer action to enforce the Editors Code of Practice. Continue reading
It is always illuminating to run things through the Daily Mail translator. It is a great shame that one of the most widely read newspapers in the UK persists in journalism which at best is click bait, at worst actively dishonest and agenda led. Of particular concern to family lawyers is that agenda currently appears to be an attack on legal aid for parents in care cases. Continue reading
On 5 August 2016, the The Daily Mail, ran an article about the Ellie Butler case based on Freedom of Information Act requests to the Ministry of Justice. Similar articles appeared elsewhere, for example Huffington Post and The Guardian, all in a similar vein, although perhaps slightly less colourfully expressed than the Mail’s version. Continue reading
In V v Associated Newspapers [2016] EWCOP 21, published on 25 April, Mr Justice Charles, Deputy President and Judge in Charge of the Court of Protection, uses the word ‘prurient’ several times about the press coverage of earlier judgments in the case of ‘C’, the woman who ‘lost her sparkle’. (She had been described in this way, from her own words, in a judgment by Mr Justice Macdonald.) Continue reading
I wrote one blog post last week which I thought was about one thing – the irritating promotion of a dangerous untruth that the UK is the ‘only’ country in Europe or even the World that permits ‘forced adoption’. Interestingly, the focus of my concerns soon shifted after it was pointed out to me that the article in the Independent which made much of this ‘fact’ was actually written by Caroline Selkirk, the Chief Executive of the British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF). Continue reading
It is ironic to note that the source of the title quote, so often used by the late great Sir Terry Pratchett has itself often been falsely attitributed – to both Mark Twain and Sir Winston Churchill. It seems likely that its source is Jonathan Swift – see further Freakonomics – Quotes Uncovered: How Lies Travel. Continue reading
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