'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
One teenager made offensive comments about a murdered child on Twitter. Another young man wrote on Facebook that British soldiers should "go to hell." A third posted a picture of a burning paper poppy, symbol of remembrance of war dead.
A British juror will be sent to jail for discussing a drug and corruption trial with a defendant on Facebook, a judge said Tuesday.
It's the tweet smell of success for courtroom microbloggers in Britain.
Lord Chief Justice Igor Judge, the head of the judiciary in England and Wales, said the use of "unobtrusive, hand held, virtually silent" equipment to give live text updates was unlikely to interfere with the administration of justice.
Igor Judge said there had been a "profound, almost palpable belief that justice has not been done and that it cannot be done without and until the full truth is revealed."
Justice Igor Judge said in his judgment that the law should not prevent "satirical or iconoclastic or rude comment, the expression of unpopular or unfashionable opinion about serious or trivial matters, banter or humor, even if distasteful to some or painful to those subjected to it."
