President of the Family Division rules on claim to exclude the media from family court hearings

Richard Spearman QC acted for the father in a test case about the principles to be applied in relation to media access and reporting in family law cases concerning the children of celebrities.

The President, Sir Mark Potter, gave guidance as to (a) the circumstances in which the media could be excluded from private hearings in accordance with the new Rule 10.28 of the Family Proceedings Rules 1991 (which came into force on 27 April 2009) and (b) the procedure to be followed where exclusion is sought. While observing that cases concerning the children of celebrities were no different in principle from those involving the children of anyone else, the President also recognised that press interest will be more intense in the case of the children of celebrities, and that their need for protection from intrusion and the danger of leakage to the public will also be more intense. Granting the father’s application under Rules 10.28(4)(a)(i) and 10.28(4)(b), the President ruled that the child’s interests and welfare constituted a strong case of necessity for the media to be excluded in protection of her Article 8 rights. The President also ordered the continuation of an injunction relating to reporting restrictions, which had been challenged by media parties. The judgment did not fully resolve the question of whether and how the part of Article 6 which provides that “Judgment shall be pronounced publicly but the press and the public may be excluded from all or part of the trial … where … the protection of the private life of the parties so require” is accommodated in the new Rule 10.28.

Richard Spearman QC, instructed by Schillings, was leading counsel for the applicant father.