Media ignorance of human rights legislation is harming the independence of the judiciary, the lord chief justice said in a speech in Jerusalem yesterday.
Lord Judge said that journalists must understand that, when judges apply decisions of the European Court of Human Rights via the Human Rights Act, they are applying ‘the law of the United Kingdom as decided in parliament by the ordinary legislative process’.
He also attacked the ‘sometimes vituperative personal criticism’ levelled at judges by some journalists, saying that criticism should only be directed at the legal principles binding the judge.
He said that direct personal criticism against judges has a ‘corrosive long term effect on the public’s view of the judiciary and the exercise of its functions’.
‘The price that must be paid for an independent press means that it will sometimes be irresponsible, and be inaccurate, and be not conformable,’ he said.
‘It does matter to the welfare of the community, and the preservation of the independence of the judiciary, that the confidence of the community in its judiciary should not be undermined.
‘That is not to say that justifiable criticism should not be made of judges.
'That is not to say that judicial decisions should be immune from criticism.
'But when the judiciary is criticised in the media, it should be on the basis of an understanding of the limits or obligations imposed by the law on the judge.’
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