Can Justice Fight Back?

The global public loves to read about savage slayings. The tragic death of the innocent may help sell newspapers but manhunts, police chases, arrests and then the judicial process is of enormous and legitimate interest to the public. Death is not local news: as can be seen by the enormous and worldwide media coverage of cases such as O.J. Simpson, Mark Bridger (jailed for life for the murder of April Jones) Stuart Hazell (a minimum of 38 years in prison for the murder of his partner's granddaughter 12-year-old Tia Sharp) and the ongoing Oscar Pistorius case in South Africa.

In the digital age worldwide publicity stretches the protections meant to be afforded to defendants to have a fair trial to the limit. And foreign publishers discussing cases in other jurisdictions need to be alert as they are likely to have assets (such as a news bureau) that could be reached and seized by a prosecutor (or Attorney General) if they overstep the mark.