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Media should fight teacher anonymity – Satchwell

Society of Editors executive director Bob Satchwell is calling on media organisations to oppose plans to give anonymity to teachers accused of committing criminal offences against children in their care unless and until they are charged with a criminal offence.

The proposals are contained in Clause 13 of the Education Bill which should receive its second reading in the House of Lords on 14 June/

They would make it a criminal offence to publish or broadcast anything which could identify a teacher who is alleged to have committed an offence against a pupil at his or her school until he or she is charged with an offence.

Mr Satchwell told education minister Nick Gibb at a recent meeting that the plans were a “serious interference with the principle of open justice and freedom of expression.”

The SoE boss said the proposal meant that even if a teacher was sacked or otherwise disciplined for assaulting a pupil, but not prosecuted, the allegations of assault or other criminal misconduct could never be reported as the reason for the disciplinary action.

It also could not be publicised if a teacher was sacked for other reasons.

A SoE briefing stated: “If no charges are ever brought, an indefinite reporting ban results. It would then be a crime ever to identify the teacher and allegations made against them – even if raised in the course of other legal proceedings, such as employment tribunals, or civil court cases, or other criminal cases, or inquests or public inquiries or in official reports and other documents.

“It would also be a crime to report that a teacher had been arrested for an offence in respect of the allegation.”

The Bill also contained no provisions for a public interest defence.

The briefing said the Bill was changed in the Commons to allow the reporting restrictions to lapse once the Secretary of State or the General Teaching Council of Wales had published information about a teacher in a disciplinary case referred to them for investigation and decision – a change which came after it was pointed out that Education Secretary Michael Gove would have been automatically liable to prosecution for publicising a list of teachers who were banned from teaching for misconduct.

The briefing said that while Mr Gibb had said that false accusations by pupils destroyed teachers’ lives and put them in fear of going into the classroom, neither he nor his officials were able to provide any evidence that media reporting encouraged pupils to make false claims so that reporting bans were actually needed.

“We pointed out that teachers and unions had also suggested that the real problems stemmed from the ways that the allegations were handled, which the Government was now addressing by other means,” Mr Satchwell wrote.

The media side had also pointed out that teachers accused of assaults might, for a variety of reasons, never be charged, that the proposals would be a serious interference with the principle of open justice and freedom of expression, and that they flew in the face of campaigns which had for some time suggested that children should always be believed in the first instance.

“We suggested that the internet and social networking would make the plan impractical and encourage rumour and speculation. Controlling traditional media in this way would simply stack up trouble for the government and it certainly would not be in the public interest,” Mr Satchwell added.

4 comments

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  • June 9, 2011 at 9:34 am
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    I think the Society of Editors is wrong on this. Teachers need anonymity to combat the tide of career-wrecking, baseless accusations made by young louts who are dominating classrooms.
    Teachers are terrified of pupils these days because they can ruin their careers so easily. That can’t be right. If teachers can still be named and shamed when charged and/or convicted of an offence, then I think this move can only be a good thing overall.

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  • June 9, 2011 at 9:47 am
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    I’m with subbo – why on earth would Bob satchwell want newspapers to have the right to pass on baseless gossip and malicious, unporven allegations about teahcers? Fair enough if they are charged, and absolutely if they are guilty – but how can the public interest be served by reporting accusations before that point? Bob’s gone mad.

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  • June 9, 2011 at 9:48 am
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    Obviously that should have read “unproven allegations about teachers”….Maybe I should get ‘subbo’ to check my work before it’s published……

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  • June 9, 2011 at 10:03 am
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    Too right they should have anonymity, up to the point of being charged with an offence.

    Malicious, unfounded gossip is the hard currency of school playgrounds; newspapers should have nothing to do with it.

    Satchwell and his Society of Idiots need to climb down from their ivory tower.

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