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Press freedom move in inquests from journalists' union

The National Union of Journalists is fighting top protect reporters’ rights at inquests in response to a new Coroners’ Bill – which could increase reporting restrictions.

The Bill could allow a senior coroner to prohibit the publication of the name of the deceased or any interested person, and also any information which could lead to the identification of the deceased.

Editors have already voiced concerns over plans to give coroners the power to impose reporting restrictions at inquests in England and Wales.

The bill is designed to ensure bereaved families get a better service from inquests, and as part of this some inquests into apparent suicides and child deaths could become private, unless the public interest would be served by keeping it public.

The new bill states that applications for privacy might be made by an interested person, which can be a spouse, civil partner, parent, child, brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild, child of a brother or sister, stepfather, stepmother, half-brother, half-sister or friend of long-standing of the deceased.

The union believes such a move is not in the public interest – and would severely hamper journalists in carrying out their work covering coroners’ courts.

The NUJ Parliamentary Group is taking up the fight.

Union general secretary Jeremy Dear said: “I have written to the Department of Constitutional Affairs expressing the NUJ’s deep concern that this Bill could lead to a more general ban on naming, which would represent a worrying lurch forward of the privacy law.

“The Government has specifically mentioned child inquests, but the Bill would apply to any inquest. While we recognise that reporting of inquests can lead to further distress, this Bill has the potential to severely restrict press coverage, even when it is in the public interest. As such it is an extremely retrograde step.”

The union’s Ethics Council is to provide a briefing on the union’s concerns around the Bill and the Parliamentary Group will seek to get questions tabled at the Select Committee and raise concerns through other Parliamentary channels.

The union fears there is no allowance for the media to challenge the prohibition in the public interest, and there are fears that the ban could be applied much more widely than is necessary.

In a foreword to the draft bill, Lord Falconer and constitutional affairs minister Harriet Harman wrote: “We recognise public inquests as a powerful and valuable part of impartial and independent investigation, but we also know of the additional grief and pain that can arise for bereaved people from making public personal details.”