5 Mar 2009

Judge revises ruling over Bain website coverage

5:22 pm on 5 March 2009

Newspaper websites will now be allowed to produce their own video news stories during the David Bain murder retrial, after a last-minute legal appeal by the newspapers' lawyers.

Mr Bain is accused of killing his parents and siblings in Dunedin on 20 June 1994.

On Wednesday, the High Court in Christchurch banned some forms of internet coverage but the decision was revised on Thursday.

Newspapers worldwide now routinely employ specialist staff who shoot and edit video news stories for their websites, rather than just the traditional text and still photographs.

It is this type of coverage the New Zealand Herald and media company Fairfax applied to provide during the three-month Bain trial. They were denied by the trial judge on Wednesday.

Justice Panckhurst said court guidelines pertaining to media coverage of trials did not make provision for internet coverage.

However, lawyers for the Herald and Fairfax on Thursday spoke to Justice Panckhurst, who has now amended his decision and will allow the video news coverage.

A ruling that bans live internet streaming from the courtroom via the internet, as requested by TV3, remains in place.

The trial begins on Friday at the High Court.