Sir, – Darius Bartlett (February 22nd) asks about the reporting of jury composition in criminal trials.
First, it is not a recent tendency to report on the gender composition of a jury in criminal trials. I have been covering court cases for The Irish Times since 1980 and I have always (along with most of my fellow court reporters) described the make-up of a jury in gender terms, eg “a jury of five men and seven women”.
This is a long-standing newspaper convention that is consistent with other aspects of court reporting, including the accurate name, age and address of the defendant, the nature of the offence, when it happened, where it happened and in what court the trial is taking place.
In other words old-fashioned journalism – not the instant tweets and texts of the so-called “new media”.
The practice of reporting gender composition was not necessary before the mid- 1970s because up until then women could not serve on juries.
It is self evident that the composition of a jury has a bearing on criminal trials and this does not require further clarification.
I trust this clarifies for Mr Bartlett why The Irish Times (and other newspapers) continue to rely on accurate journalism for the proper reporting of our criminal justice system, which is, after all, guaranteed under the Constitution. – Yours, etc,