Television Coverage of the Proceedings in Criminal Courts

Public hearing, that is the most important and essential part of the criminal procedure, requires the presence of people in the process freely. Publication of the proceeding's news and public awareness about them is also considered as one of the requirements of public hearing. But in recent years along with this issue with the growth of mass media, television coverage of the proceedings in the criminal courts has also been raised. This paper has tried to address the arguments for and against the subject and to consider position of Iranian law in this regard. Television coverage of the criminal procedure appears to improve gape between public opinion and criminal justice and to increase public confidence about its functions at less in some cases that have public importance. In other hand it should be noted that television coverage of criminal trials more than enough may decrease importance of trials for people to the extent that it is possible for people to see it as an entertainment.