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Citizen Engagement

Australian state may tweet court rulings

By Xinghui Guo | 2 September 2011

The Supreme Court in Victoria, the second most populous state in Australia, is considering publishing its sentence rulings on Twitter, said Marilyn Warren, Supreme Court Chief Justice.

“The courts are getting to a stage where they have had enough of the inappropriate criticism, the skewing of information in the media, and we really need to try and seize the day ourselves and give some information to the community,” Chief Justice Warren said.

Warren said she has spoken to the court’s media team about ways to improve its communications and to use technology more extensively. Ideas include having an anonymous judge blogging to the community, and using Twitter and the Supreme Court’s website “more effectively”.

“We may have someone tweeting from the Supreme Court. We want to reach out, we want to communicate,” said Warren.

According to Caroline Counsel, President of the Law Institute of Victoria, courts using social media to give reasons for sentences and broadcasting live sentences can lead to more public support for court sentences.

“Where the courts have let themselves down has been in being a little behind the times in seeing they have to communicate with the public, and because we have that void, it has been filled, often with the more sensationalised tabloid headlines,” said Counsel.

A survey by the Sentencing Advisory Council, Victoria’s official independent authority on sentencing, found that only 53.7 per cent of Victorians were confident that judges imposed an appropriate sentence most of the time.

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