In news that will be of particular interest to media organisations, the Supreme Court of NSW has introduced new rules that provide for judgment to be recorded and broadcast.
Under the new rules (Part 9A of the Supreme Court Act 1970 and Part 13 of the Supreme Court Rules 1970), a person may apply to the Court for permission to record or broadcast “judgment remarks” by sending an email request to the Media Manager. Any recording of judgment remarks must be made in accordance with the rules, which set out the manner in which the recording is to be made.
There is a presumption in favour of permitting the recording of the judgment, except in the case of particular circumstances (eg where there is a suppression or non-publication order about the identity of person).
There are two rules that are of particular interest to IP lawyers:
- First, any recording equipment that is used must not display any trade mark, logo or other branding that identifies it as the equipment of any particular news media organisations.
- Second, any news media organisation that makes a recording must make that recording available for use by any other news media organisation that wishes to broadcast it, or if there is to be a live broadcast, any other news media organisations must have equal access at the same time to the live feed.
