Another victory for open justice
REPORTER Eleanor Harding of the Wandsworth Guardian in south west London has logged another triumph for quality local journalism.
Earlier this year she won a national award for articles on the stigma surrounding mental illness (last issue) and in August she persuaded a judge to lift a gagging order on the trial of a sex offender.
Kingston Crown Court had banned reporting on the case of Wajahat Zubair, who groped women at a tube station. The clerks’ office said the order had been made under section 4 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 “because it is a sex case”.
But Judge Matthews agreed at Kingston Crown Court to lift it after a letter from Eleanor Harding.
She said: “The order does not exist to protect sex offenders. This is a small victory over the growing culture of over-cautiousness at some courts, which contradicts the principle of open justice.”