The Gazette 1992

GAZETTE

SEPTEMBER 1992

N W E S Society Launches Media Awards

the media in highlighting miscarriages of justice, as recent years have shown, is absolutely crucial". The first competition will cover the year from 1 May, 1992 to 30 April, 1993. Any media organisation which has produced a newspaper, magazine or book in Ireland is eligible to enter the awards competition. Ken Murphy says he hopes that solicitors throughout the country will play a role in identifying potential entrants and will liaise with their local newspapers both to make sure that they are aware of the competition and to encourage them to participate in it. "The awards are based loosely on the Gavel Awards Competition run annually since 1958 by the American Bar Association. The Gavel Awards are highly prestigious in the US. They have a reputation encouraging more extensive and better quality coverage of legal affairs. I hope the introduction of media awards here will have a similar effect and that our awards system will grow and develop in much the same way as the Gavel Awards did". for integrity and have been enormously successful in The Justice Awards and Certificates of Merit will be made in a number of classifications including daily newspapers, non-daily newspapers with 30,000 or less circulation, non- daily newspapers with circulation of more then 30,000 magazines and books. In the first year the competition will be confined to the print media but it is hoped thereafter to include the broadcast media. In addition, there will be one overall prize which will be an expenses paid trip for two representatives of the winning media organisation to New York City in August 1993. The winners will attend the American Bar Association's Gavel Awards Annual Presentation Luncheon as guests of the ABA. The travel costs

for this prize have been kindly sponsored by Aer Lingus.

At the launch of the media awards, Law Society President, Adrian Bourke, said the media played a vitally important role in a free society in helping to expose both the failings of the legal system and the laws and legal practices which require reform in the public interest. "There is a huge agenda of reform for the legal system, not just in terms of amending outdated statutes or introducing new legislation, but also in terms of the accessibility of our system of justice to the people it exists to serve - the public. The media has a vital role to play in describing and highlighting the reform agenda", he said. Adrian Bourke also announced that the Council of the Law Society had decided that as and from 1 January next the final outcome of all disciplinary cases against solicitors where misconduct is found would be published in the Gazette so that the information would be available in a document of public record for any member of the public or the media who wanted access to it. The Justice Media Awards of 1992/93 will be made at a presentation ceremony in June, 1993. The entries will be judged by solicitors who will make up the Law Society Standing Committee on the Justice Media Awards. The deadline for entries is 30 April, 1993. Entry forms and a rules booklet are available from the Law Society on request. The launch of the awards scheme was greeted by very favourable comment and coverage in all the national daily newspapers both in news reports and editorials. Within two days of the launch of the competition the first entry was received.

Logo for the Justice Media Awards Competition

At the end of July, Law Society President, Adrian Bourke, launched the inaugural Justice Media Awards Competition at a reception in Blackball Place attended by a substantial number of representatives of all sections of the Irish media. The competition is designed to provide recognition of public service by newspapers, magazines and book publishers which make outstanding contributions to public understanding of the Irish system of law and justice. The introduction of the Media Awards, which was pioneered by Ken Murphy of the Public Relations Committee, is designed to build bridges with the media and to encourage both higher standards of reporting of legal issues and increased coverage of legal affairs generally. Ken Murphy says: " It is clearly of benefit to both the public and the profession to have accurate, well informed reporting of legal affairs in the media in order that the public is aware of legal developments generally. Very few people, other than lawyers, will ever read a law book. Accordingly the citizen's general knowledge and understanding of his or her legal rights and obligations, whether arising under existing law or new laws, will come through reporting in the media. In addition, the role of

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