Judiciary holds consultative meeting with the media |24 February 2022

Members of the Judiciary during their interaction with representatives of the local media (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

The Judiciary held a first consultative meeting with the local media yesterday at the Palais de Justice.

The aim of the meeting was to get feedback from the media on the Judiciary’s upcoming policy for filming/photographing inside the courtroom and discuss how coverage of court cases has been going on so far.

Chief Justice Rony Govinden, the Registrar of the Supreme Court Juliana Esticot, the director for Legal Affairs Lionel Garrick, Legal Researcher Olya Hetsman and Sasha Alis, the public relations officer represented the Judiciary.

The media was represented by the chief executive of the Media Commission Ibrahim Afif; the chairperson of the Association of Media Practioners Seychelles (Amps), Rassin Vannier; Clive Camille – Télésesel; Denise Dufresne and Estelle Chang Thiou – Today in Seychelles; Cindy Wirtz – Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation; Patrick Muirhead – Freelancer and Vidya Gappy – Seychelles NATION.

The media representatives aired their concerns in covering the court cases and it was decided that the members of the media do need some training. In order to help the media with high profile/public interest cases, legal researcher Olya Hetsman has already been drafting the media summaries.

The meeting was very informative and, on both sides, there were suggestions and recommendations. Nothing has been finalised but Chief Justice Rony Govinden noted that soon the Judiciary will issue something in writing about filming in court.

“In the past we allowed it for limited time subject to approval of the judge and not to capture the actual event but just for footage. Going to directly filming full sessions is a big leap and many jurisdictions don’t allow it. We must be aware of the rules and be accurate, fair, and balanced. The footage should not be used or published outside of content and must be used fairly. All contents should be treated alike, adhere to the right of a fair hearing, aware of the rights of victims and the rights of vulnerable witnesses.”

CJ Govinden was very appreciative to the media and said that we are fulfilling an important role. “You are our mouthpiece and one pillar of our democracy. We want to work in partnership and with this meeting we hope to see some concrete actions,” concluded CJ Govinden.

Vidya Gappy