Media Scrum is a big fan of J-schools - if only because we like to work with people who can do shorthand and know how the fucking apostrophe in "it's" works - and we are dismayed by the continued dismantling of this country's journalism courses. But we still know loads of great journos who never had any real professional training, and still do a stellar job on a daily basis.
As far as we're concerned, there is a simple answer to determine if somebody is a proper journo or not - if you've ever covered a court case from start to finish for a publication or broadcast, you're a real reporter.
Court reporting is a vital skill for young journalists. You can learn so much, because you have to do so much, and you have to get it right. It can incredibly stressful, vitally important and deeply tedious, all at the same time.
The most important thing you learn is that you have to be 110% accurate, or you're in big fucking trouble. Everything has to be checked and confirmed before it goes out into the world, and there is no room for any kind of error. All the facts have to be in place, and the journalist has to be sure they're not breaking any court orders, or they could be facing criminal charges of their own.
So sitting there on the press desk, you have to learn how the name suppression goes, and learn to bite back your own disgust when justice isn't served, and just follow the goddamn rules. Anyone who can't hack that won't be a journo for long.
Every reporter should do some kind of court reporting, at least for a while. It makes them better at their job, in almost every way. It's not just the discipline of the legal rules, it's figuring out how to tell a story that doesn't favour one side of the argument over the other, and keeping some balance in their reporting, even when one side might have spent all day making their argument.
Still, while there are some incredibly knowledgeable and experienced court reporters still pounding that beat every day, it also a job that most people shouldn't do forever, because they do get jaded and incredibly cynical about the whole process, and can't see things with the objective eye needed for court reporting.
And you can't do it forever because you have to sit there and listen and watch some awful, terrible things. Every detail is brought out and pored over in the courtroom, and a reporter can end up seeing some graphic images, and hear details of awful, violent assaults. Far too much for the delicate sensibilities of the general public, and so hours of testimony just has to be reduced to 'and then the thing happened', but it can still get stuck in a dark place inside your head.
(It's a relief to note that media companies are starting to get their head around the idea that some of the shit their reporting staff are exposed to can actually be mentally harmful, because that's a conversation we need to be having.)
It's just fucking hard work, covering the court beat, but also gives us so many good stories. Crazy tales about outlandish events, and stories of courage and bravery and justice finally served. It's all there in open court, for all the world to see.
Which is why it's such a fucking tragedy that so many great stories do slip through the net. There is an important principle in the modern legal system - justice must be done, but it must also be seen to have been done. It's one of the fundamental purposes for the entire journalism business - reassuring the world that there are rules in our society and people will get punished if they break them. (This is an idea that can often be difficult to explain to many court clerks, who appear astounded that free information should be free.)
But justice isn't seen to be done as much as it really should, and things do slip through the cracks. Daily newspapers that used to sit on on list days and get everything, finding weird little gems and human interest stuff among the endless drink driving and pissing in shop doorway charges, but now they're only there for the really big stuff.
The handful of dedicated court reporters left in this country are racing from one job to another, and it's impossible to keep on top of everything that is going on in somewhere like Auckland, with multiple courtrooms across the city.
With newsrooms losing more and more staff at multiple companies, this isn't likely to change anytime soon, but we're all missing out when the press bench is left empty. Justice might be done, but who would know anymore?
- Steve Lombard
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