Justice minister Charlie Flanagan has welcomed the Chief Justice’s new practice direction limiting the use of live text and message based communications from court to bona fide members of the media and lawyers in a case.

He said: “The right to a fair trial is one of the most fundamental rights in society.  It is essential that we protect it and ensure the integrity of the trial process. 

“The use of social media from within courts has become highly controversial, not only in this jurisdiction, cutting across the law of contempt and judges’ powers of contempt.

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“I welcome this move by the Chief Justice, limiting the use of texting and tweeting from court to bona fide members of the media and lawyers in a case. This will help ensure that only those fully aware of the limits of what they can report and when, will be able to report live from a court room.”

The wider issue of the law of contempt and the use of social media in the court context is currently under consideration by the Law Reform Commission who will be producing a full report early in  2019.