This is one of the changes on April 1: according to a decree published in the Official Journal this Friday, trials can now be filmed in France. All hearings may be the subject of a filming request, but the final decision will rest with the heads of the jurisdictions, for example the presidents of the courts.
How it works ?
Divorce hearing, over-indebtedness, misdemeanor judged in correctional… all hearings are now concerned, whether at the criminal court, the commercial court or the industrial tribunal, but also those usually closed to the public, such as hearings with the juvenile judge, or the enforcement of sentences, for example. Broadcasters must address their request to the Ministry of Justice, which will issue an opinion, even if it is the heads of jurisdictions who will have the last word. The main criterion being to have a project “of public interest of a pedagogical, informative, cultural or scientific nature”specifies the decree published in the official journal.
Once the authorization has been obtained, within the framework of a public hearing, those present will not be able to oppose the recording. If it’s a non-public hearing, the agreement of all parties must be obtained. They will be able, including magistrates, to sign an agreement for the dissemination of their image. If they do not wish, the broadcaster will be held to a “duty of concealment” to avoid identifying them, according to the decree: the elements of civil status must thus be “modified or masked, faces and silhouettes blurred and voices distorted”.
This will be automatic in particular for minors, protected persons and law enforcement. The decree also provides a right to be forgotten :no identification element may be broadcast after five years from the first broadcast.
Exceptions until today
Until now, it was forbidden to photograph and film the hearings since 1954. But some exceptions had been allowed since 1985 in order to constitute historical archives. Concretely, 15 trials have since received this authorizationsuch as that of Klaus Barbie in 1987, the trial of the January 2015 attacks and that of the November 13 attacks, underway in Paris since September.
The first filmed trials should appear on France 3, the channel plans to devote a program aimed at “pedagogic” on justice from September.