‘Huge win for open justice’ as Crown court documents allowed to be published

An anti-corruption charity has succeeded in its application to publish transcripts relating to the trial of former MoD officials Jeffrey Cook and John Mason.

During the trial, brought by the Serious Fraud Office over payments to leading Saudi officials, Spotlight on Corruption and the Guardian newspaper sought to publish the trial’s jury bundle and transcripts. The SFO opposed publication arguing that it would need to be shown that it was ‘necessary and desirable’ to publish.

However in Serious Fraud Office (R on the application of) v Jeffrey Cook & AnorMr Justice Picken said Spotlight on Corruption and the applicants needed no such permission. 

Referring to previous cases, he acknolwegded it was implicit that journalists would publish the contents of documents provided to them. He added: ‘The time for imposing conditions on the subsequent use of those documents (insofar as that power arises at all) is when the court is deciding whether to grant access to the materials.

‘That is why, for example, the Practice Directions 2023 emphasise that the provision of court transcripts is subject to any reporting restriction orders that apply. Such a warning would be unnecessary if the recipients of court documents were not permitted to publish them (or their contents) or if there were a requirement to seek permission to publish material obtained after it has been obtained from the court.

‘The whole purpose of permitting third party access to court documents is to enable those documents to be reported.’

‘There is no reason in principle why Spotlight on Corruption should be obliged to persuade the court that publication is necessary and desirable in respect of a transcript, but not in relation to some other publication of the content of what is said in open court,’ the judge found. 

The judgment acknowledged that ‘the exercise of an editorial judgment’ is not for the court to make and ‘would run entirely counter to the open justice principle’.

Dr Susan Hawley, director of Spotlight on Corruption, said the judge’s decision was a ‘huge win for the principle of open justice’.

She said: ‘With court reporting on the decline or hidden behind paywalls, it is critical that the public can understand what is going on in our courtrooms. It is particularly crucial in cases such as this which highlight real questions about potential government complicity or cover-up.

‘We hope that the publication of these documents will allow greater accountability for the government’s role in this case which, despite the SFO’s prosecution, has so far faced little further scrutiny by appropriate oversight bodies.’