Legal eagles: use them or lose them!
In 2003, the CPU set up its Legal Support Programme with the support and enthusiasm of a group of highly respected media and human rights lawyers in the UK. The programme got off to a great start, working on cases in Jamaica, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, The Gambia and Tonga. Lindsay Ross outlines why Commonwealth newspaper publishers, editors and journalists should be making better use of the service. The thinking behind the Legal Support Programme was to provide legal assistance for those journalists or newspapers in the Commonwealth who did not have access to, or could not afford, legal support. It was envisaged as a means by which both individuals and institutions could be helped pro bono. At the same time it broadened the participating lawyers' knowledge of different jurisdictions and provided some interesting cases for them, made so much easier by the link of English Common Law, the basis of most legal systems in the 53 Commonwealth countries. Equally, the lawyers were absolutely committed to a programme of education that should eventually make them redundant. The initiative was very much the brainchild of the wonderful Harvey Kass, Legal Director of Associated Newspaper in the UK and a friend to journalists everywhere. He personally approached all the lawyers and encouraged them to participate and once that had been achieved, his Group Legal Advisor, Mary Russell took on the role of liaison between the lawyers and the CPU and became a key member of the team. Without their input, the programme would never have got off the ground. At the beginning, inevitably, the response was good and we handled a number of applications for diverse cases, including:
On the educational side, working with the lawyers, we devised a model 'Media Law for Journalists' seminar that could be easily adapted to local country requirements, and which would be established through the advice and input of local lawyers who would co-facilitate the seminars with our visiting UK lawyers.
A number of these seminars were conducted in the opening years of the project and proved both successful and useful to both those who participated and those who facilitated. It had been hoped that eventually we could conduct a seminar in most Commonwealth countries.
In line with the seminar, we published jointly a Legal Toolkit that was distributed to all participants and was intended to give journalists, editors and in-house lawyers working for newspapers an insight into key principles and cases in English law and human rights law which would be of interest to the media; it covered such essentials as examples of international legislation containing important rights for the media and a list of websites which contain information on freedom of expression issues.
But, as so often happens, after a promising start, interest in the programme appears to have dwindled away. This is very sad, as we find it hard to believe there's no call for pro bono legal support throughout the newspaper industry in the Commonwealth.
As far as cases are concerned, we have the lawyers on hand and keen to help, but it may be the application process is too cumbersome, or too imperious. It may be that with the constant demands on time that most newspapers experience, it's just not worth the bother of going through the application process and risk being turned down.
If it's any of these reasons, then we can work to make the whole process more user friendly. Or, it could be that there really is no need today for such an initiative - but I sincerely doubt it. If that were the case, there would indeed be a totally free press in the Commonwealth and we know this is not the case.
So we need to establish what can be done to resuscitate the programme or, if it's genuinely not needed, quietly put it to sleep.
This is such a great opportunity that we feel very strongly that we need your input. Please do email us with your thoughts. If anyone needs further information please go to www.cpu.org.uk/legal_support.html where the programme is fully outlined.
With the enthusiastic support of our colleagues in the legal profession we were able to establish the first genuinely pro bono legal programme set up for newspapers and journalists and it would be a great shame to lose it.
In 2003, the CPU set up its Legal Support Programme with the support and enthusiasm of a group of highly respected media and human rights lawyers in the UK. The programme got off to a great start, working on cases in Jamaica, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, The Gambia and Tonga. Lindsay Ross outlines why Commonwealth newspaper publishers, editors and journalists should be making better use of the service. The thinking behind the Legal Support Programme was to provide legal assistance for those journalists or newspapers in the Commonwealth who did not have access to, or could not afford, legal support. It was envisaged as a means by which both individuals and institutions could be helped pro bono. At the same time it broadened the participating lawyers' knowledge of different jurisdictions and provided some interesting cases for them, made so much easier by the link of English Common Law, the basis of most legal systems in the 53 Commonwealth countries. Equally, the lawyers were absolutely committed to a programme of education that should eventually make them redundant. The initiative was very much the brainchild of the wonderful Harvey Kass, Legal Director of Associated Newspaper in the UK and a friend to journalists everywhere. He personally approached all the lawyers and encouraged them to participate and once that had been achieved, his Group Legal Advisor, Mary Russell took on the role of liaison between the lawyers and the CPU and became a key member of the team. Without their input, the programme would never have got off the ground. At the beginning, inevitably, the response was good and we handled a number of applications for diverse cases, including:
