Sun and Mirror fined for contempt of court in Christopher Jefferies articles

The Daily Mirror has been fined £50,000 and the Sun £18,000 for articles published over killing of Joanna Yeates The Daily Mirror has been fined £50,000 and the Sun £18,000 for contempt of court for articles published about a suspect arrested on suspicion of murdering Joanna Yeates. Three senior judges ruled that the tabloid newspapers breached contempt laws with their reporting of the arrest of Christopher Jefferies, Yeates’s landlord, who was later released without charge and was entirely innocent of any involvement. Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, launched the contempt action against the newspapers in May, arguing that reports about Jefferies were “so exceptional, so memorable” that it presented a “risk of serious prejudice” to any potential future trial of Yeates’s killer. Vincent Tabak in May pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not the murder of the 25-year-old landscape architect, who was found dead on Christmas Day near Bristol. Tabak is due to face trial at Bristol crown court in October. The attorney general said after Friday’s ruling: “I welcome today’s judgment. While there was a great amount of speculation and copy relating to Mr Jefferies across much of the media, these three pieces of newspaper coverage were a different matter. “They breached the Contempt of Court Act and the court has found that there was a risk of serious prejudice to any future trial. This prosecution is a reminder to the press that the Contempt of Court Act applies from the time of arrest.” Earlier on Friday, Jefferies accepted substantial libel damages from eight newspapers – including the Daily Mirror and the Sun – over stories relating to his arrest. In the contemptruling handed down at the high court on Friday, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Owen described the Daily Mirror articles as “extreme” and “substantial risks to the course of justice”. The judges said the Sun’s coverage of Jefferies created a “very serious risk” that any future court defence would be damaged. “These articles [in the Sun] would have certainly justified an abuse of process argument, and although their effect is not as grave as that of two series of articles contained in the Mirror, the vilification of Mr Jefferies created a very serious risk that the preparation of his defence would be damaged,” the judges said. “At the time when this edition of the Sun was published it created substantial risks to the course of justice. It therefore constituted a contempt under the strict liability rule.” • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook The Sun Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Daily Mail Media law Contempt of court Joanna Yeates Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 29, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.