Care proceedings and public interest were centre stage in a recent case involving the BBC. Nicholas Dobson reports
- X and another v The BBC and others [2025] concerned the limits of the open justice principle, specifically in the context of care proceedings under the Children Act 1989.
- The court found that the BBC’s objective wasn’t to scrutinise the way courts decide cases or to help the public to understand how the justice system works. So the purposes behind the its application weren’t connected with the open justice principle
The Irish judge James Mathew (1830-1908) once tartly observed: ‘In England, justice is open to all—like the Ritz Hotel.’ But justice being available to all (or otherwise) is a different question from the openness of the justice system itself.
Open justice requires public entitlement to see how justice is done. Courts should therefore hold hearings in open court, enabling public access. Press and others are entitled to report on legal proceedings, and judicial decisions should be publicly available. Courts must apply their
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