‘The Law and the Media: Maintaining Justice’ will form the basis of the Lord Chief Justice’s In Discussion With… talk with the Society of Editors (SoE) later this month.

Taking place on Thursday 19 November 2020 at Noon, the discussion will take place as part of the Society’s Virtual Conference for 2020 and free registration is now open.

Appointed to the position of Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales in October 2017, Lord Burnett of Maldon will touch upon areas including cameras in court, video-access to live hearings and the challenges posed by social media and protecting fair trials.

Looking ahead to the discussion, Ian Murray, Executive Director of the SoE said that the talk was an opportunity to hear more from the head of the judiciary about mutual concerns for both judges and the media during the ongoing pandemic.

He said: “With England poised to head into a second lockdown, the discussion with Lord Burnett will focus on areas such as remote access during the pandemic and issues such as cameras in courts. He will also touch upon the challenges that social media poses to protecting fair trials and whether we can expect to see enhanced use of video hearings in the future.”

The Society’s Virtual Conference for 2020 will see four In Discussion with… keynote talks as well as eight panel debates in the nations and regions held virtually over the course of November and early December. Confirmed speakers for the In Discussion With…series include BBC Editorial Director Kamal Ahmed and newly-appointed ITV News Editor Rachel Corp while panel discussions will focus on issues such as mental health in the newsroom, lockdown lessons from Leicester and beyond and diversity in the news media. The full programme of events alongside how to book is available here.

Register for the discussion with the Lord Chief Justice here. A biography for Lord Burnett of Maldon appears below.  

The Right Honourable The Lord Burnett of Maldon

Lord Chief Justice 

The Right Honourable The Lord Burnett of Maldon was born 28 February 1958. He studied law at Pembroke College, Oxford. Called to the Bar in 1980, he became a pupil and then a member of Temple Garden Chambers, where he practised until May 2008, for the last five years as head of Chambers.

Lord Burnett’s practice was in common law and public law. In the early years, he undertook a broad range of common law work including personal injury, professional negligence, landlord and tenant, crime and family law. He then focussed on public and administrative law, personal injury and health and safety law, including acting as junior counsel to the King’s Cross Fire inquiry and to the inquiry into the convictions of the Guildford Four and Maguire family. He was leading counsel to the inquiry into the Southall rail crash and into train protection systems following the Paddington train crash. His final case at the bar was as counsel to the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi al Fayed. He was involved in many judicial review and public law cases and, in particular, in the years following 9/11 those concerning the government’s response to the risk of terrorist attack. He then joined the High Court Bench.

Lord Burnett was junior counsel for the Crown, Common Law from 1992 and was appointed as a Queens Counsel in 1998. Appointed as a Recorder in 1998, he sat as a part-time judge in the Crown Court trying criminal cases. On appointment to the High Court in 2008 Lord Burnett joined the Queen’s Bench Division hearing civil law, and public law cases in the Administrative Court, trying serious crime out of London and sitting in the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division. He was Presiding Judge of the Western Circuit from 2011 until 2014 when he was appointed to the Court of Appeal. He was also Deputy Chairman of the Security Vetting Appeals Panel. In the Court of Appeal Lord Burnett heard the full range of civil, family and criminal appeals and continued to sit in Divisional Courts of the High Court. Lord Burnett was the judge of the Court of Appeal with responsibility for extradition cases and was also supervising Lord Justice for immigration and public law appeals. He was Vice Chairman of the independent Judicial Appointments Commission from November 2015 until March 2017. He was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales on 1 October 2017.

He is President of all the Court of England and Wales, sits in both the Criminal and Civil divisions of the Court of Appeal, in the Divisional Court and also in the Supreme Court.