The reporter for this article is in Scotland, which is relevant both to their legal liability and to their ability to know to write these articles. For other nuances of the legal situation I'd defer to the reporter (who, as they put it in the reporter's notes for the earlier article, is related to a Scots lawyer and has access to hot and cold running legal advice). But I'd also note, if the point of the law here is to avoid messing up the course of justice, and there is no public good to be served by publishing the arrestee's name and picture, why would we go out of our way to do so?

Pi zero (talk)18:39, 13 February 2014

One of the core principles of journalism is that the world benefits from more transparency and more checks to the system. There are already plenty of examples on Wikinews of articles that publish information on arrests and charges, such as California teacher arrested after photos indicated lewd acts on children. I was not shocked about the publication of this story because it has news value. Normally, these situations are about issues or problems in the community that citizens need to know about, the legal system also benefits from operating through transparency and not from operating behind closed doors, as well as other benefits including motivating people to solve problems. Would the Roman Catholic Church have benefited from more transparency? The Church did itself a great disservice and to its adherents from its opacity. Again I'm reading the article through the eyes of an American, and I know that we could publish it online in the US and everybody in the UK could then have access to it. Who would be legally liable? As long as no UK citizen worked on the article, it seems to me that nothing could be done by the authorities in the UK.

Crtew (talk)19:42, 13 February 2014

Re legal liability, as opposed to moral responsibility. Repeating the first sentence of my earlier remark: The reporter for this article is in Scotland, which is relevant both to their legal liability and to their ability to write these articles. I meant by that, the article was not and, as a practical matter, likely could not have been written by people entirely outside Scotland.

I see no similarity to the Roman Catholic Church's opacity. This isn't about covering things up, it's about respecting a reasonable request (in the form of legislation) not to prematurely publish specific details that could sabotage the ability of the courts to function well. Setting aside the legal definition of "contempt of court" in favor of the actual meaning of the words, premature publication of the arrestee's identity in this case seems like disrespecting the court process.

Pi zero (talk)20:30, 13 February 2014