QC calls for televised courts to raise profile of justice system

Television should be allowed into courtrooms to improve confidence in the justice system, a leading QC said last week.Speaking on raising public confidence, Jonathan Caplan QC, the former chair of the Bar Council's public affairs committee, said the OJ Simpson, William Kennedy Smith and Louise Woodward cases appeared to be media circuses.

But he added: 'If we are to inspire public confidence in justice then the public should be able to see courts on television.Rikki Klieman, a lawyer and anchor for US station Court TV, said the camera is the best friend of good advocates, and that the 'sunshine' of public scrutiny was the 'best disinfectant' for the justice system.But Justice Stephen Breyer, of the US Supreme Court, said television would not be permitted into the country's top court.

To do so, he said, would risk the introduction of a cult of personality.

Jeremy Fleming