News / Colston 4
TV news channel escapes contempt of court charge over Colston 4 piece
A national news channel has escaped a contempt of court charge for an opinion piece published during the Colston 4 trial.
GB News was accused of prejudicing the trial with an article and video monologue by presenter Mercy Muroki criticising the defendants mid-way through proceedings.
Rhian Graham, 30, Milo Ponsford, 26, Jake Skuse, 37, and Sage Willoughby, 22, were acquitted of the charges of criminal damage over the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue at Bristol Crown Court on Wednesday.
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Prior to the verdicts, there are strict rules on what can be published while proceedings are ongoing due to the risk that material could prejudice the outcome of a trial.
The Colston 4 trial began on December 13 and attracted widespread media attention – photo by Rob Browne
The matter relating to the GB News piece came before the court before Christmas but could not be reported on at the time.
Giving his decision in court on Wednesday, judge Peter Blair stated: “It’s not my intention to refer GB News to the attorney general given that they have made the equivalent of an apology and followed it up with a statement of the steps they took to take any reference to the report off other sites.”
The judge said the channel had also pledged to retrain staff on media law.
A representative for blog site Alternative Bristol also appeared before the judge on Wednesday for a separate potential contempt of court after an item was briefly published on its website.
The judge said he did feel in this case that it would be appropriate to send the matter to the attorney general as it was swiftly rectified and the representative apologised and promised to pass on the judge’s comments to contributors to the site to ensure it does not happen again.
Main photo by Martin Booth
Read more: Rees: ‘Colston’s statue not being there is a good thing but we must deal with issues of substance’
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