THE policy of allowing television cameras into Scottish courts is to undergo a major review that may result in more trials being televised.
Scotland's most senior judge, the Lord President, the Rt Hon Lord Gill, said technology had changed considerably in the 20 years since broadcasters were first allowed to apply for permission to televise proceedings.
The Lord President, hailed as a moderniser of the courts when he was appointed in June this year, has therefore instructed judicial office holders to carry out the review.
No further applications to film in court will be considered until it is completed.
The issue is an extremely divisive one for the country's advocates.
Donald Findlay, QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, is among those vehemently opposed to the filming of criminal trials. He said: "There are no positive effects, none whatsoever.
"It's difficult enough for witnesses to come forward without the prospect of their image being emblazoned on a television screen at some point in time.
"And if you're going to have someone after a trial has con-cluded trying to compress a long trial into a short documentary, how do you have any guarantee that it will be a fair representation of what went on?
"Why should somebody who has been acquitted be effectively re-tried on television, where the public at large only see one or two people's view of what the important evidence was?
"If the public want to go and see a criminal trial, the doors are open. But I have never, never been trampled in a stampede of the public trying to get into the gallery to watch a criminal trial."
However, Brian McConnachie, QC, vice-chairman at the Criminal Bar Association, said: "Most people, certainly the vast majority of lay people that I speak to, obtain their knowledge about how the law works on what they see on the television or in films.
"All of the procedure they see there, almost without exception, is either based on English procedure or American procedure.
"So I think it would be good for people, if they were sufficiently interested, to be able to see just how our courts actually work."
The announcement comes just a few months after David Gilroy, found guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh of murdering his work colleague Suzanne Pilley, became the first convicted killer to have his sentencing filmed for British television.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "The matter of televising court proceedings sits rightly with the Lord President.
"The judiciary is best placed to consider when cameras should be allowed in court while maintaining an open and fair court system."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article