Abstract: In news reports, legal reports have attracted the attention of many audiences for their stimulating and narrative contents. However, if the professional level is not improved, it will easily have a negative impact on the news parties and lose the principle of fairness and objectivity in news reporting.
? Paper Keywords: news reports; Legal report; Business level?
First of all, legal reporting should avoid "presumption of guilt"
With the deepening of public trial, the media's understanding of the court and the facts of the case appeared the phenomenon of "trial first", "newspaper trial", "media trial" or "offside" in the reporting process. The appeal period of the first-instance judgment has not expired, and the judgment has not yet taken legal effect. At this time, no one has the right to designate the defendant as a criminal, and should use the words "criminal suspect" and "criminal suspect". However, in the current legal reports, there are often some reports and expressions that do not conform to the legal provisions. The most typical and common are some idioms of presumption of guilt, such as "fugitive", "villain", "evil deeds", "murderer", "gangster bully" and "catching the robber Huang Moumou on the spot" and so on. For example, last year, the second edition of xx Daily (65438+February 3) was titled "Newsboy Exposes Fraud in Bidding of xx Park", and the boss Chen xx was arrested. The suspect has just been arrested and has not yet filed a public prosecution. At the end of the article, the reporter asserted that he would be severely punished by law, and the editor had made clear the nature of fraud in the title. A large number of words "presumption of guilt" are only used in manuscripts reporting cases investigated by investigation organs. This kind of report written by publishing the crime is tantamount to confirming the suspect's guilt and declaring his crime serious before the court decides.
In practice, with the expansion of the scope and the increase of the number of legal reports, a large number of case reports violate the principle of "presumption of innocence". Some legal reports that violate the law and social ethics have also appeared. Some reports ignore the provisions of national laws prohibiting the disclosure of state secrets and personal privacy and insist on "innovation" and "disclosure"; Some describe the process of killing and pornography in great detail, for fear of missing a detail and making news reports more "exciting" than violence; Some reports clearly recorded the criminals' complicated and high-tech modus operandi, and became free crime skills teaching materials, and so on.
The author thinks that legal reports should establish the legal consciousness of "presumption of innocence", prevent preconceived reports and not abuse conclusions. 1997' s criminal procedure law clearly stipulates: "No one shall be convicted without the judgment of the people's court according to law." The influence of this provision on news reporting is not only to change the "criminal" and "criminal" in the report into "suspect" and "defendant", but also to change the whole reporting mode. "Presumption of innocence" must implement the right division and balance mechanism of modern rule of law, and the right to confirm guilt is concentrated in the court, and the prosecution and the police can only raise doubts about the guilt of the person involved. The police can publish the results of the investigation, but the facts identified in the investigation are not legally recognized. The police and the prosecution can think that the person involved has committed a crime, but this cannot legally confirm his guilt. Therefore, the focus of media reports should be shifted from the prosecution to the court. While reporting the opinions of the prosecution, the opinions of the defense should be properly reported, and the in-depth report and analysis report of the case should be placed after the court makes a guilty verdict. Before the court decides, the media can only take a neutral stance on the facts and conclusions published by the relevant judicial organs.
Two, seriously report the major cases under trial.
Case reports, especially the reports of major cases, have always been the hot news that the mass media and the public are generally concerned about. Due to the complexity and sensitivity of major cases, the media must be objective and fair when reporting major cases, and cannot speculate on major cases in order to attract public attention. When reporting major cases being tried by the court, the media should abide by the law, respect legal procedures and safeguard judicial authority. Because the reports of major cases have great social impact, the media must be cautious when reporting major cases. Generally speaking, they should wait until the case is concluded. Media reports on major cases should strictly follow the interview procedures, and the manuscripts should be submitted for trial according to regulations. We should be responsible to the parties, the media, the public and the society, and do a good job in reporting major cases.
The "Zhang Jinzhu Incident" a few years ago is a typical example. Zhang Jinzhu, director of Zhengzhou Public Security Bureau, fled the scene after hitting someone with drunk driving. Before the case was decided, the media had launched a large-scale condemnation. Judges are human beings and are inevitably influenced by the outside world. Finally, he made the judgment that "not killing is not enough to make people angry". Zhang Jinzhu lamented that he "died in the hands of the media, not the law", and lawyers in Zhang Jinzhu always used "the pressure of public opinion" as the reason for unfair trial.
If the media reports this case carefully, the judgment similar to Zhang Jinzhu's case may be overturned by the Court of Appeal, because the judge is seriously influenced by the media during the trial, which is seriously unfair to the parties. The procedural unfairness of a case is a violation of the basic principles of law. In recent years, some media in our province have also reported on major cases in advance, which has caused extremely serious public opinion consequences. The parties are angry, the police object and the readers are dissatisfied. The media should be cautious about this report.
Third, pay attention to the reasonable boundary between news supervision and judicial justice.
The right to freedom of the press, like other powers, has certain limits, and it must keep a reasonable boundary with the independence of the court. Once abused, it will go to the opposite side. Therefore, we should give a reasonable boundary to the "double-edged sword" of media supervision so that it can play its role within this limit.
The most impressive case is that a few years ago, Beijing xx newspaper published "Before and after the Trial of Zhang Kaike" with a full-page headline, reporting the public trial of Zhang Kaike, the former secretary of Qijiang County Committee, by Chongqing Intermediate People's Court. At this time, the final judgment of the court has not yet been made, but the' tendentiousness' of the report is very obvious: before writing the report, the newspaper quoted the topic with three suspense black boxes: "How did Zhang Kaike walk on the trial bench?" Why didn't he stand trial with Lin Shiyuan? How did Zhang Kaike's trial respond in Qijiang? The article is then accompanied by three headlines: "Ten thousand people denounce Zhang Kaike", "Many sophistries in court" and "Many disappointments of Qijiang people" to describe the masses' "denunciation" of Zhang and Zhang's "sophistry in court". The article also describes the image of Zhang Kaike when he appeared in court: "Standing in the dock, Zhang Kaike has lost his former' domineering'. Although he wears a gray shirt with a white T-shirt, he still can't resist that kind of guilt and fear; Although he is wearing round-bottomed cloth shoes, his legs are still shaking, his hands and feet are at a loss, and his eyes are blank. " Reporting an unresolved case in this way can easily incite public sentiment and put Zhang Kaike in a position where he must be killed. If such reports flood the media, the supervision of the judiciary by news will surely go astray.
In recent years, many judicial departments and media in our province have different views on public opinion supervision. Some local judicial units also use various means of "suppression" because of media supervision, and all refuse media interviews; Some media, because some judicial departments don't understand, cooperate or even boycott interviews, all adopt the method of blocking manuscripts, which leads to a stalemate between the two sides. This is a very abnormal phenomenon.
Therefore, the media should pay attention to the fact that at any stage of filing, investigation, prosecution and trial, the news media can report the case, but it must not go beyond the judicial process to report first, let alone make tendentious comments and exert pressure on the judicial activities of the judicial organs. When commenting on reported cases, the media should try to understand the whole picture of the case and the essence of the problem. We should adhere to the principle of objectivity and fairness, and pay attention to giving all parties the same opportunities and conditions, the same amount of information and impartiality in media reports. When there are different understandings of the application of laws and regulations in the trial of a case, do not rashly express positive or negative conclusive opinions, but first put forward them internally and announce them at an appropriate time after reaching an understanding. Media supervision should try to protect citizens' privacy, and citizens have the right not to disclose or let others know their personal secrets. Even if some behaviors are unethical, as long as they do not violate the law and the rights of others, there is no need for the media to interfere in citizens' private lives.