Change in the method and type of media reporting is increasingly causing problems for the criminal courts, according to Judge Michael White.
Judge White presided over the trial earlier this year of four young men for the manslaughter of Brian Murphy outside Club Anabel. He was speaking at a seminar in Dublin yesterday at a Central Law Training Ireland conference on defamation.
While very few cases in Ireland had had to be stopped because of contempt of court, judges had to ensure that the system of trial by jury was protected, he said.
Contempt of court usually arises in criminal cases by breach of the sub judice rule, he said. The law of contempt was a deterrent, essentially concerned with the prevention of prejudice.
"For example, publication may amount to contempt on the basis of possible prejudice, and yet at the same time, it may be held that the trial had not in fact been prejudiced," he said. "Any material published close to the scheduled trial in any branch of the media which can be reasonably viewed as prejudicing an accused's trial is potentially interfering with the administration of justice."
He stressed that the judiciary have always to be careful not to interfere unduly with the right to freedom of expression. It should not be curtailed except to the extent necessitated by protecting the administration of justice.
Solicitor Ms Catherine Ghent said the legislature should act in accordance with the recommendation of the Law Reform Commission on contempt.
Uncertainty had arisen in a number of areas, particularly the protection due to people whose prosecution was imminent, even if they had not yet been charged.
Referring to the right to privacy, she said this was an extremely complex right, and was guaranteed by the Constitution.
This protected people even where material published about them was true.
She raised the question as to whether the dead had a right to privacy, referring specifically to coverage of the death of Ms Lynette McKeown, who was described in the Evening Herald as "a drug addict who worked the streets as a prostitute to feed her habit".
These were very damaging statements, and Ms McKeown had never been charged either with the possession of drugs or prostitution, she said.
"It would seem to me that the impact on the living and, in particular the family of Ms McKeown, including her daughter who the paper describes as being only 20 months-old . . . could provide grounds for a post-mortal right.
"In our society where vigilanteism has grown, the importance of protecting children who are accused is obvious," she added.