COURTS should make available to the media whatever is on public record or in the public domain, according to Australia's Chief Justice, Sir Gerard Brennan.
However, Sir Gerard rejected any notion that the court should act as interpreter of its own decisions or seek to explain the reasons why a decision was reached.
That was the job of the media, which must probe and analyse the treason for judgments of public importance. "The basic justification for freedom of the press is the employment of an informed and critical faculty and the employment of that faculty is a source of pride to the competent journalist."
Sir Gerard was giving the annual University College, Dublin, RTE lecture on broadcasting, society and the law at the O'Reilly Hall at UCD.
He said the judiciary and the media were partners in a mutual democratic enterprise in which both must acknowledge responsibility.
The courts may seem dull compared with covering government band politics, but he reminded his audience of lawyers, broadcasters and journalists that it was the courts which bore the full responsibility for maintaining the rule of law and that depended on public confidence in the courts.
The media's function was to report and critically analyse the work of the courts. "So we are speaking in the present context of disparate but interlocking functions which, if properly performed by both institutions, should produce public confidence in the maintenance of the rule of law by the courts."
It was not enough to have judges who were competent and impartial. To ensure public confidence they must sit in open view, he said.
"The judge receives and hears in public whatever is to affect the decision. No representation is received by the judge in the privacy of his chambers. No telephone calls are accepted from parties or their protagonists. Secrecy does not cloak the exercise of judicial power."
Sir Gerard listed the exceptions when privacy might be necessary for reasons of physical or national security, to protect the identity of children or a victim of crime, or for protection of trade secrets.
The media must not alone inform the people of judgments but must also explain how the court arrived at its decisions, he said.