Believing survivors doesn’t mean discarding the presumption of innocence

The natural way Twitter exploded yesterday immediately after the news that the demo of Brittany Higgins’ alleged rapist, due to begin subsequent week, has been vacated and will be set off for some months. “Precious legal professionals,” I retain reading through, “protecting their exclusive turf and dealing with the relaxation of us like youngsters.”

There is, I concur, a acceptable conversation to be had about the utility of the sub judice contempt rule in the age of social media. In the meantime, the legislation is even now the law. Due to the fact we’re all so excitable about the rule of legislation, how about we fucking comply with it?

Main Justice Lucy McCallum of the ACT Supreme Court docket experienced just about every proper and reason to do what she did, in the pursuits not just of the accused, Bruce Lehrmann, but all of us. So quickly shed in the maelstrom of Me Also is the somewhat refined stage that believing survivors is not the identical point as discarding the presumption of innocence.

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The sub judice rule is 1 of the 1st lessons taught to budding journalists. As McCallum mentioned: “Extensive media reporting of allegations of prison conduct is not a mischief in alone. On the contrary, it is acceptable to recognise that the media enjoy an important role… What is a possible mischief is the capacity for media reporting of these kinds of difficulties to distribute in these types of a way as to interfere with the good and proper dedication of any linked issue prior to the court. That risk is specially acute in the case of pending felony proceedings.”

For the media, it can be a tough balance, but the simple principle is to not prejudge guilt which is why they’re typically so assiduous about sticking “alleged” in entrance of almost everything. As the trial gets nearer, the sensitivity really should raise. A week out from trial, they need to be publishing almost nothing about the circumstance, the complainant or the accused besides the bare details of the felony approach. When the demo starts, they can report it as it unfolds.

In that context, what transpired is completely baffling. McCallum recorded in her judgment that Lisa Wilkinson, who had interviewed Higgins on Ten’s The Challenge when she first disclosed her allegation, achieved with the Crown prosecutor on June 15 mainly because she was likely to be known as as a witness.

Wilkinson especially lifted with the prosecutor the fact that she was up for a Logie award the pursuing week and had ready a speech. The prosecutor explained to her they couldn’t inform her what she could or couldn’t say, but warned her that the defence could “reinstitute a stay software [to stop the trial going ahead] in the function of publicity”.

McCallum went on: “Notwithstanding that apparent and suitable warning, on receiving the award, Ms Wilkinson gave a speech in which she brazenly referred to and praised the complainant in the current demo.”

The judge noted feedback created by radio hosts Jonesy and Amanda the adhering to early morning, in which they evidently “assumed the guilt of the accused”. Higgins posted on social media repeating some of Wilkinson’s remarks the situation “amounted to Ms Wilkinson endorsing the believability of the complainant who, in convert, celebrated Ms Wilkinson’s endorsement of the complainant’s credibility”.

As McCallum concluded: “The prejudice of such representations so extensively described so close to the date of empanelment of the jury can’t be overstated. The trial of the allegation from the accused has transpired, not in [the court] but in the media.”

She’s correct: the “alleged” has been lost alongside the way, rendering Lehrmann’s demo unsafe. Irrespective of whether he is criminally responsible or not, which is for the jury to make a decision, his entitlement to a honest trial is in all our passions.

What is so deeply annoying about this situation is how quickly it could have been avoided. Lehrmann’s attorneys experienced had a go before this year at having his demo completely or temporarily stayed mainly because of the extreme publicity bordering the situation, and McCallum had refused it. She was alive to the danger, but concluded that it could be managed. Yesterday she said in open up court that she had placed way far too much believe in in the media to play its element responsibly.

This debacle is not the fault of social media, the place of course Lehrmann has been and will carry on to be attempted endlessly. That can be dismissed. The system afforded a main media personality, supplying a speech at the industry’s major awards ceremony, cannot. Nor can the broadcast electrical power of breakfast radio.

All the media experienced to do in the ultimate months in advance of the trial was shut the fuck up about the circumstance. Some of them chose not to. The result is a catastrophe, for Higgins extra than anyone else. I have insufficient words to categorical my sympathy to her.

Anyone demands to go again to journalism university and relearn their first lesson. Remember to let us not locate ourselves in this article all over again.

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