Supreme Court joins Facebook and posts Judges’ blogs

Chief Justice Marilyn Warren made the announcement as part of the Redmond Barry lecture at the State Library.

“Open justice now increasingly means the ability of the community to access information about the courts is through the internet and social media," she said.

"This will represent a historic shift away from traditional judicial reluctance to explain or defend judicial decisions that are made in accordance with the rule of law.

"Education and clear directions to juries will be the key. We plan that a retired judge might write a regular blog for the court website to create greater community understanding around controversial issues,"

"With the decline in the number of court reporter roles, the courts are losing the main source of dedicated and coherent media coverage of court proceedings and justice sector matters.

"When web-streaming is used the community can check for themselves what transpires in the Supreme Court and see and what the judiciary actually do when they administer the law."

The Australian newspaper claimed that the move was devised “in order to fill the gap left by the decline of specialist court reporters,” to enable the Supreme Court of Victoria to communicate directly with the public.