Charles Christian on social media and the law

In one of his latest podcast in his Law Tour Report, Charon QC interviewed Charles Christian of Legal Technology. From 34 minutes of the podcast Charles Christian talks social media and the law surrounding contempt of court:

"[Social media has] put a broadcasting tool in the hands of many. Whereas before their only outlet would have been to write a "yours disgustedly" letters to the Daily Mail and the Telegraph - which an editor would have spotted, intercepted and binned - now they can get through all of that.
It's a case of the floodgates have opened and every man can access the media.

It's no good saying, no we can't do it. People like the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve and others are going to have to consider and revise the contempt laws (contempt of court orders, in reference to recent John Venebles incident). Realizing what used to be the case, is no longer the case. And there have been incidents where the A-G has commented on the facts that jurors have been tweeting. Using social media to do a quick search while in the jury room.

It's a case of, we're going to have to rethink some of our current laws which were brought out in the age of pen and ink court reporters and when the only mass media was the newspaper, and rethink them for the modern age."

Listen to the podcast in full here.