Law and Rights
A look at two sets of guidance issued by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS): (1) Joint Enterprise and (2) Communications via social media.
(1) Joint Enterprise
Just before Christmas 2012, the CPS issued important guidance on how charging decisions will be made following offences involving two or more participants in what is known as "joint enterprise."
Joint enterprise guidance 20th December 2012
Keir Starmer QC said: "This is a controversial and complicated area of the criminal law, so I want the public to understand how we take decisions to charge in these cases. This guidance for prosecutors explains the case law and sets out the key tests that we must apply to each case. What this guidance cannot do is change the law, which is a matter for Parliament and the courts.
In particular, this guidance will assist prosecutors in deciding whether, and with what offence, suspects with minor roles in group assaults should be charged. Accidental presence at the scene of a crime or mere association with an offender is never enough to create liability - a suspect must assist or encourage the offence in some way. This is the fundamental distinction drawn by prosecutors and the courts in cases of joint enterprise, and our guidance makes this clear."
(2) Communications and social media
Interim guidelines on prosecuting cases involving communications sent via Social media
This has been an area where a number of prosecutions have appeared to be particularly heavy-handed - e.g. the Twitter Joke case of Paul Chambers.
This interim guidance is open to public consultation until 13th March 2013. Introducing the interim guidance, the Director of Public Prosecutions - Keir Starmer QC - said:
"These interim guidelines are intended to strike the right balance between freedom of expression and the need to uphold the criminal law.
They make a clear distinction between communications which amount to credible threats of violence, a targeted campaign of harassment against an individual or which breach court orders on the one hand, and other communications sent by social media, e.g. those that are grossly offensive, on the other.
The first group will be prosecuted robustly whereas the second group will only be prosecuted if they cross a high threshold; a prosecution is unlikely to be in the public interest if the communication is swiftly removed, blocked, not intended for a wide audience or not obviously beyond what could conceivably be tolerable or acceptable in a diverse society which upholds and respects freedom of expression.
The interim guidelines thus protect the individual from threats or targeted harassment while protecting the expression of unpopular or unfashionable opinion about serious or trivial matters, or banter or humour, even if distasteful to some and painful to those subjected to it."
See the CPS statement about the guidelines
This seems to be the age of "guidelines" and whether the social media guidelines are actually required is a moot point. In a podcast on CharonQC's UK Law Tour, John Cooper QC (who defended Paul Chambers) argued that the guidelines are not needed - the test should be "common sense" applied to the Act in question. The virtue of "common sense" has appeared to be sometimes absent when the law has had to decide how to deal with certain ill-advised comments on media such as twitter and facebook. A further point is that, all too often, offences in Acts of Parliament are not particularly clearly drafted and this inevitably leads to variations in charging and eventually to judicial decisions on the meaning of the Act. The Twitter Joke appeal judgment is now a precedent on section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.
See the earlier post on Tweets, Facebook ~ Go to Jail (12th October 2012)where the cases of Azher Ahmed and Matthew Woods are considered.
- A Look At The Michael Turner Case (aka Michael Le Vell - Aka Soap Star Name Kevin Webster)
At the Crown Court sitting in Manchester, the case of R v Michael Turner was heard by His Honour Judge Henshall and a jury. Turner, probably better known as the actor who plays the Coronation Street character Kevin Webster, was charged with sexual...
- Electronic Media And Possible Offences ~ Another Twitter Case
Apart from the Communications Act 2003 s.127(1) - (see the post on the TwitterJoke case about the acquittal in the High Court of Mr Paul Chambers) - the law has several other ways of seeking to punish those who send ill-advised messages to others. ...
- The Twitter Joke Case
When enacting legislation, Parliament does not usually seek to define ordinary words of the English language. Where Parliament wishes a word or phrase to have a special meaning, there will usually be an interpretation section. Unfortunately,...
- Joint Enterprise
On 19 October 2011, the House of Commons Justice Committee. announced an inquiry into the aspect of secondary liability in a criminal venture commonly known as joint enterprise. The inquiry was prompted by dissatisfaction with the operation of the doctrine...
- Text-based Communication From Court
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Law and Rights
Crown Prosecution Service ~ Guidance material
(1) Joint Enterprise
Just before Christmas 2012, the CPS issued important guidance on how charging decisions will be made following offences involving two or more participants in what is known as "joint enterprise."
Joint enterprise guidance 20th December 2012
Keir Starmer QC said: "This is a controversial and complicated area of the criminal law, so I want the public to understand how we take decisions to charge in these cases. This guidance for prosecutors explains the case law and sets out the key tests that we must apply to each case. What this guidance cannot do is change the law, which is a matter for Parliament and the courts.
In particular, this guidance will assist prosecutors in deciding whether, and with what offence, suspects with minor roles in group assaults should be charged. Accidental presence at the scene of a crime or mere association with an offender is never enough to create liability - a suspect must assist or encourage the offence in some way. This is the fundamental distinction drawn by prosecutors and the courts in cases of joint enterprise, and our guidance makes this clear."
(2) Communications and social media
Interim guidelines on prosecuting cases involving communications sent via Social media
This has been an area where a number of prosecutions have appeared to be particularly heavy-handed - e.g. the Twitter Joke case of Paul Chambers.
This interim guidance is open to public consultation until 13th March 2013. Introducing the interim guidance, the Director of Public Prosecutions - Keir Starmer QC - said:
"These interim guidelines are intended to strike the right balance between freedom of expression and the need to uphold the criminal law.
They make a clear distinction between communications which amount to credible threats of violence, a targeted campaign of harassment against an individual or which breach court orders on the one hand, and other communications sent by social media, e.g. those that are grossly offensive, on the other.
The first group will be prosecuted robustly whereas the second group will only be prosecuted if they cross a high threshold; a prosecution is unlikely to be in the public interest if the communication is swiftly removed, blocked, not intended for a wide audience or not obviously beyond what could conceivably be tolerable or acceptable in a diverse society which upholds and respects freedom of expression.
The interim guidelines thus protect the individual from threats or targeted harassment while protecting the expression of unpopular or unfashionable opinion about serious or trivial matters, or banter or humour, even if distasteful to some and painful to those subjected to it."
See the CPS statement about the guidelines
This seems to be the age of "guidelines" and whether the social media guidelines are actually required is a moot point. In a podcast on CharonQC's UK Law Tour, John Cooper QC (who defended Paul Chambers) argued that the guidelines are not needed - the test should be "common sense" applied to the Act in question. The virtue of "common sense" has appeared to be sometimes absent when the law has had to decide how to deal with certain ill-advised comments on media such as twitter and facebook. A further point is that, all too often, offences in Acts of Parliament are not particularly clearly drafted and this inevitably leads to variations in charging and eventually to judicial decisions on the meaning of the Act. The Twitter Joke appeal judgment is now a precedent on section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.
See the earlier post on Tweets, Facebook ~ Go to Jail (12th October 2012)where the cases of Azher Ahmed and Matthew Woods are considered.
- A Look At The Michael Turner Case (aka Michael Le Vell - Aka Soap Star Name Kevin Webster)
At the Crown Court sitting in Manchester, the case of R v Michael Turner was heard by His Honour Judge Henshall and a jury. Turner, probably better known as the actor who plays the Coronation Street character Kevin Webster, was charged with sexual...
- Electronic Media And Possible Offences ~ Another Twitter Case
Apart from the Communications Act 2003 s.127(1) - (see the post on the TwitterJoke case about the acquittal in the High Court of Mr Paul Chambers) - the law has several other ways of seeking to punish those who send ill-advised messages to others. ...
- The Twitter Joke Case
When enacting legislation, Parliament does not usually seek to define ordinary words of the English language. Where Parliament wishes a word or phrase to have a special meaning, there will usually be an interpretation section. Unfortunately,...
- Joint Enterprise
On 19 October 2011, the House of Commons Justice Committee. announced an inquiry into the aspect of secondary liability in a criminal venture commonly known as joint enterprise. The inquiry was prompted by dissatisfaction with the operation of the doctrine...
- Text-based Communication From Court
The Lord Chief Justice's Practice Guidance on the use of live text-based forms of communication (including twitter) from court has been issued and replaces the interim guidance issued in December 2010 (Law and Lawyers 28th December 2010). The...