NLJ this week: Drawing the line on contempt

The headline recommendation is deceptively simple: criminal proceedings should become ‘active’ at charge, not arrest. That shift would give authorities more freedom to counter dangerous falsehoods in the critical post-arrest window.

Once proceedings are active, however, the existing test remains firmly in place, with no blanket categories of information deemed always safe or unsafe to publish. Context, not checklists, is king.

The commission rejects a broad public interest defence, warning it would erode jury trial protections. Instead, it calls for sharper guidance on when prejudice is merely incidental.

The result is a careful recalibration, not a rewrite, of a sensitive area of law.