NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
W(B)L 51-7406
CONFIDENTIAL
anxious to refrain from taking the latter step
nevertheless
unless this is absolutely unavoidable; but 5 feel unable
it te very difficult to accept as part of the
permanent law of the Colony a provision
which gives a judge or magistrate the very
wide power of directing "in the interests of
justice or public order or security" that
any criminal case should be heard in a court
from which the public are excluded to an
extent which would include the delivery of
judgment and verdict.
3. It is true that under Section 122 the
representatives of the press cannot be
5 am required to leave the court, but we are
advised that this fact is not, of itself,
sufficient to justify leaving the Section as
it stands. One reason why it is required that
verdict and sentence in a criminal case
should be announced in open court is in order
that not only the public but in particular
the relatives and friends of the accused may
know and actually see what has happened to
the latter. It would not be satisfactory to
rely on such persons obtaining information
from newspapers regarding the court's
decision since:
(a) the press might not report the
result of the case,
(b) the case might be reported only in a
newspaper which the relatives and
friends did not see,
(c) the case might be reported in a
newspaper printed in a language not
known to the relatives and friends,
2
CONFIDENTIAL