The following is issued on behalf of the Judiciary:
The Judiciary today (February 9) announced that it will be launching the second trial run of live broadcasting of court proceedings through video webcasting for two appellate proceedings in the Court of Final Appeal (CFA) to be heard respectively in March and May.
Open justice is a key to maintaining public confidence in the judicial system and upholding the rule of law. To enhance the transparency of court procedures and public confidence in the judicial process, the Judiciary has been actively pursuing the initiative of live broadcasting of selected judicial proceedings outside court premises.
The Judiciary launched the first trial run of live broadcasting of court proceedings on two CFA cases heard on January 10 and 16 respectively for testing the technical feasibility of the arrangements, including the information technology and audio-visual setup, as well as the logistical and operational details.
To further test certain technical and operational arrangements including the possible element of remote hearing and another screen layout of fixed grids view, the Judiciary has identified two additional CFA substantive appeal hearings respectively on March 4 and May 3 for another trial run of live webcast. Major details are as follows:
- Members of the public can view the live webcast of the two selected CFA cases on the CFA website via desktop computers or mobile devices installed with common browsers.
- Relevant information of the live webcast will be provided nearer the time of the court proceedings on the websites of the CFA and the Judiciary.
- After the live webcast ends, the videos of the court proceedings will be uploaded to and kept on the CFA website for three calendar days after the hearing date to allow easy access and flexible viewing.
- Members of the public, including the media, must not record the live webcast or use the live broadcast footage for any purpose. Measures such as digital rights management commonly found on streaming platforms will be put in place to deter unauthorised recording, screen capturing and illegal distribution of the live broadcast footage. Any person who records, edits or re-broadcasts the live broadcast footage without prior permission of the Court is liable for contempt of court or copyright infringement. Warnings will be shown on the CFA website during the live webcast and webcast playback.
Upon completion of the second trial run, the Judiciary will conduct a review and consider the way forward for live broadcasting of court proceedings outside court premises in the longer term.
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