A reporter used his twitter account to report on a murder trial.
The Wichita Eagle and its companion website Kansas.com have covered the trial of Ted Burnett by filing real-time updates from the court directly to the web.
Of course the questions that have to asked is whether 140 charactors can be deemed fair and accurate and thus covered by the reporting rules.
The main difference in the UK would be that the reporter would have to leave the courtroom to send his text updates but the site asked legal advice and it came back with
As long as reporters focus on reporting the trial through Twitter and adhere to any reporting restrictions, the service could be used without being in contempt of court.
"The danger of confining a report to 140 characters is that by editing to such a short report, it will not properly be 'fair and accurate' - it might not present the full defence, for example, or explain that what a witness said in chief fell apart in cross examination,
Hat tip JP Digital Digest
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