A former court reporter on a daily newspaper has written a user-friendly book on media law.
Sarah Chapman used to be the crown and high court correspondent for the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo.
She left to become a senior press officer for Greater Manchester Police, where she trained police officers in media skills.
Now the 36-year-old from Manchester lectures in journalism and media law.
Sarah had the idea to write a basic training manual in media law while working at the paper and finding that many trainee reporters struggled with finding the basics in large law books.
She put a more user-friendly book together, which was and still is used in the Echo newsroom.
Covering Criminal Courts: A Survival Guide includes the essential law needed by every journalist covering court, but also includes handy hints, like how to tell a barrister from QC and how to get the best out of court clerks.
Said Sarah: “In the fast-changing world of court reporting it is essential a reporter knows what they can and cannot report and when. In the current jobs climate, journalists are no longer required to be narrow specialists and have to know a lot about almost everything.
“Both when I was a trainee and a seasoned hack, I always found it time-consuming and tricky to put my hand the precise information I needed, so I decided to write a list of what I thought was important. That list grew into a concise book, which has proved and is proving popular among reporters and students.
Covering Criminal Courts: A Survival Guide costs £3.39 to download and is available as an eBook and Kindle from Amazon.
Added Sarah: “An eBook can go anywhere with you, plus it’s cheap. Where else can you get legal advice for roughly the price of a pint?”
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It sounds good. I hope she has mentioned the ushers too. Getting to know them, and treating them with respect is the key to covering seven courtrooms single-handed in the local mags. When editing the Oldham Advertiser, I recall how one of my reporters landed a corker of a story simply through having a good, professional relationship with the ushers. An otherwise dull afternoon prowl around the court was transformed when an innocuous-looking theft case – listed for pre-trial review and thus of little use – unexpectedly turned into a guilty plea and was bumped from Court 5 to Court 1. One of the ushers mentioned it to our man in passing, and the result was an opposition-crunching, exclusive splash: “Bank clerks stole dirty money”. Over a period of time, the accused duo had cleverly snaffled many thousands of pounds of grubby bank notes from the bundles that were being sent for incineration. Tip of the hat for doing a top job goes to Paul Britton, who is now an experienced hand on the Manchester Evening News.
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court. what’s that? where I work we don’t have enough reporters to go. books sounds good though.
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Chappers was the best crown court reporter the Echo has had! I’m sure it will be a great read and useful guide.
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Sarah Chapman trained me in media law a few years ago and I still use the notes she gave me as it was so useful.
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”An eBook can go anywhere with you, plus it’s cheap. Where else can you get legal advice for roughly the price of a pint?”
In most locals!
Seriously, sure it will be a most informative and useful resource. I have been a recipient of Sarah’s training sessions during her time at GMP and found that she had a very down to earth approach to getting some complicated issues over to lay people.
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