OTTAWA
- The verdict is in from the country's top judge: The justice system
must figure out how to deal with social media such as Twitter and
Facebook.
That's because a free press and an independent judiciary
have an "indispensable" role to play in a democracy that is committed
to the rule of law, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said Tuesday.
In
a speech to students at Carleton University, McLachlin said the media
in general are essential to building public trust in the administration
of justice.
But she says newspapers, radio and television are "old
technology" at a time when anyone with a keyboard can create a blog and
call themselves a journalist.
She wondered whether fairness and
accuracy might be lost in the world of Facebook and tweets and instant
messaging, which she says are part of a profound, cultural shift in how
people communicate.
"Some bloggers will be professionals and
academics providing thoughtful commentary and analysis," she said.
"Others will fall short of basic journalistic standards. Will accuracy
and fairness be casualties of the social media era?
“What will be
the consequences for public understanding of the administration of
justice and confidence in the judiciary? How can a medium such as
Twitter inform the public accurately or adequately in 140 characters or
less?”
McLachlin’s remarks are timely given the recent "honour
killing" trial that ended in Kingston, Ont. over the weekend with the
conviction and life sentences handed down against a man and his parents
in the first-degree murder of four family members.
Justice Robert
Maranger, the trial judge, banned tweeting from his courtroom. He
allowed the use of electronic devices such as laptop computers for the
purposes of note-taking only.
McLachlin said in her speech that
North American judges "are already grappling with some of these
questions. Should judges tweet? Should they be on Facebook? And other,
more complex, queries wait in the wings."
The issue raises serious questions, she said, including whether online publicity can prejudice the fair trial of an accused.
“If
witness or juror contamination is a concern with television, is it not
even more so with ubiquitous social media accessed or received
automatically via a hand-held device?” McLachlin said.
Regardless, McLachlin concluded that the interests of the media and the courts "are inextricably intertwined."
"As
the media invent and re-invent themselves, so must judicial
understanding evolve of how we relate to the media. We must look
forward; we dare not hang back.
"This is our only choice, for what is at stake is nothing less than the rule of law."