The media and public misconceptions about the judiciary

[97] Those with an interest in the relationship between the media and the judiciary generally agree that it needs to be improved. Debate so far has tended to focus on process, or how the two institutions go about dealing with each other. This article takes the debate into another field by looking at the content of media reporting on the judiciary. Based on a study of newspaper articles, it identifies a number of ways in which the media risk perpetuating public misconceptions about the judiciary. Those misconceptions are: that the purpose of judicial independence is to benefit judges; that judges represent sections of the community; that the government is the only potential source of illegitimate influence on the judiciary; and that the justice system aims to be perfect. In many instances the problem arises from the commercial pressures on the media that can lead to a tendency to sensationalism and lack of attention to cases where the system has worked well. In others, however, it is suggested that with a little more attention to the long term implications of their work media organisations and their employees can do much to improve the accuracy of the overall impressions they convey, thereby also improving their relations with the judiciary.