The Supreme Court will on Tuesday, February 15, hear a petition filed by local journalist, Baker Byansi, concerning press freedoms in regard to coverage of court proceedings by journalists. Byansi is particularly protesting Article 71 of the Law relating to the civil, commercial, labour and administrative court procedures, which stipulates that: “With the exception of persons granted special authorisation by the president of the court, any other person who seeks to make audio and video recordings in the courtroom does so before the panel of judges enters the courtroom or after the closure of hearing after the panel of judges exits the courtroom.” The article adds that authorisation to make audio and video recordings in the courtroom is applied for in writing at least forty-eight hours before the hearing. “The president of the court decides in writing to grant or reject the application for making audio and video recordings after examining whether the granting of such application cannot adversely affect the interests of the administration of justice, national security, safety of parties and morals,” it reads. In an interview with The New Times, Byansi said he believes it is not necessary for a journalist to ask for permission to cover court, since such is unconstitutional. “It contradicts Article 38 of the constitution which concerns people’s rights to information,” he said without divulging more details. He also noted that requiring journalists to seek permission 48 hours before the court session begins is not good, since they are not even in position to easily know the cases that will be taking place in court before 48 hours, “except those cases are major.” “So, we ask the Supreme Court to make things easy for reporters. They can do this in various ways, for example, they can allow the journalists to access the online case management system (in order to know about the cases in time). Alternatively, the journalists can be allowed to cover court by only presenting their service cards,” he said. Byansi is a reporter for M28 Investigates, a news website which he co-founded. He is also a radio journalist working for Royal FM.
