Day 146 - 03 Jul 95 - Page 41
1 matter I am going to decide; I could not decide it unless
2 I had evidence on oath on it, and I am certainly not going
3 to embark upon that exercise) that someone has actually
4 been putting verbatim bits of the transcript into the
5 public domain and if, rightly or wrongly, that has upset
6 the party who is paying for it, and if you would like to
7 continue to have the advantage of having transcripts for
8 your own use, for instance, for cross-examination and
9 making comment to me in due course, then you have to think
10 about -- this is not advice to you -- what it seems to me
11 it would be worth thinking about is whether from now on, if
12 you are provided with transcripts and the benefit of
13 CaseView, you should just keep them to yourselves, as
14 I have already said.
15
16 If you thought that that is what you would be prepared to
17 do, then you have to find out what the First and Second
18 Plaintiffs' attitude is in relation to that, but that is
19 just possibilities for you to consider.
20
21 MS. STEEL: There were a couple of other things I wanted to
22 say. I am not really sure what the complaint is because,
23 as far as individual sentences, brief statements or
24 whatever are concerned, as I understand it, journalists are
25 free to attend the court if they want to. They can report
26 what they want. If the objection is, well, I do not know
27 whether the objection is that what is being said is
28 inaccurate or what. If the Plaintiffs consider it is
29 inaccurate then, in theory, it cannot have been done from
30 the transcripts.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I am saying is, I am not going to look
33 into that. I am not going to embark upon whether the
34 matters which appear in quotes could have only come from a
35 transcript or whether it might have come from a note of
36 someone sitting in court, be it a member of the press or
37 anyone else for that matter, took down verbatim. I am not
38 going to embark on an exercise of looking into whether
39 quotes, if they are verbatim quotes (and I certainly am not
40 going to check), are produced in a partial or impartial or
41 balanced or unbalanced way. That is just none of my
42 business, as far as I am concerned, unless it is suggested
43 that someone has been guilty of some contempt of court and
44 it is brought before me in that respect which it has not
45 been. But let us leave it there. Think about the -----
46
47 MS. STEEL: I did have other things that I wanted to say. I
48 mean, if you want them done tomorrow, then I will leave it.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I would rather everyone just thought
51 about the situation. If you say I have a power to direct
52 one way or the other, then you have to give me chapter and
53 verse for that power. If you are suggesting that I should
54 make a comment one way or another, you have to persuade me
55 to do that.
56
57 Let me just repeat what I have just said and then add a
58 third thing because I am trying to summarise what I have
59 said in the last few minutes at greater length. If you say
60 I have a power to direct McDonald's to provide you with
