ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the growth of automatic reporting restrictions in criminal proceedings, focusing in particular upon the latest sets of restraints imposed by the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996. It attempts to predict the likely attitude of the European Court of Human Rights to automatic restrictions, analyses in the process the extent to which the Strasbourg Court might reflect values and standards developed by the United States' Supreme Court in its interpretation of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The chapter offers the less restrictive attitude of United States jurisprudence towards media coverage of criminal proceedings is explored after which an analysis of the legality of domestic restrictions under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Whilst there is no absolute right of access to criminal trials in the United States, considerable importance is attached both under the First Amendment and in federal statute to the notion of open judicial proceedings.
