Some Thoughts On Media Supervisions On Judicature

The first part this article focuses on combing the relationship between media and judicature. Freedom of the press and justice, media monitoring and judicial independence are the basic elements of judicial relations. The occurrence of the relationship between media and justice originated from constraints of the rights to power. Media is a platform for the public to exercise the rights of expression freedom and press freedom, is an important way to format the public opinion, monitor the state power. Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy, a powerful weapon for citizens to keep away rights violated by state power. On society governed by the rule of law, justice is the last resort to end the dispute, is the last line to relief the rights. Justice is a fact that, under the guidance of the basic principle of the rule of law, when the judges are judging a case, they will only be subject to the facts as found in line with legal procedures, apply the law to parties equally and impartially, the same situation, the same treatment. The fundamental purpose of justice is to protect civil rights. Therefore, freedom of the press and the justice have a commonality in value.The public has the right to know the judicial process, and the so-called visible justice is justice, so in order to obtain legitimacy, the judicial process should be opened. Therefore, on the one hand, judicial fairness demands that the justice can not refuse the reportage to their activities from media. on the other hand, judicial fairness may also be over-reported by the media.Judicial independence is a necessary prerequisite of judicial fairness, the inevitable requirement of the rule of law. The painful lesson of history reminds us that if justice has become the vassal of party and government power, that would lead to national chaos, and people would lose security. Therefore, we must uphold the principle of judicial independence. But insisting on judicial independence does not mean unlimited judicial power, judicial independence is not the fundamental purpose of the rule of law, rule of law's requirement of judicial independent proceeds from the fundamental pursuit of judicial fairness. As a power, judicial power also requires a certain constraint. The media with its openness, breadth, speed advantages acts as an important way of judicial supervisions. Supervisions are necessary condition for achieving justice, but that does not mean a stronger supervision is more conducive to the realization of justice. The realization of justice requires not only imposing some oversight to the judge' exercising of the power, but also the judge can maintaining a rational and free thinking when finding a verdict, holding the law as the only supervisor to maintain a certain independence.Most Western countries have a clear opposition to the reference "media supervisions on judicature". In common law countries, especially the United States, the facts are judged by the jury, but the jury is selected among non-legal professionals, these people are vulnerable to outside forces, especially the strong influence of the media, thereby affecting justice. Therefore, measures must be taken to exclude the interference. In civil law countries, the opposition to the "media supervisions" is because they have greater emphasis on degree of specialization, and believe that justice itself is self-sufficient, needs no intervention from external forces and resources. Western countries' opposition to "media supervisions on judicature" is opposed to making independent and special institutional arrangements for "media supervisions on judicature", not to exclude the media from the judicial field, on the contrary, they show especially treasuring on the media, and become more and more tolerant on the media reports of judicial activities.In China, the party and people attach great importance to media supervisions on judicature, It has become an important problem that the previous successive Party' Congress emphasized since the Communist Party of China 13th National Congress. There are profound practical reasons that the supervisory role of the media to the administration of justice so seriously valued. On the one hand, the judicial system can not guarantee the independence of justice, resulting in some places, the court became a vassal of the party and government power, a shield of local protectionism. Meanwhile, the corruption, a common problem during the society transition period has infiltrated into the area of justice, and probably has a significant spreading trend. On the other hand, supervisions within the system, the NPC supervisions and procuratorial supervisions etc, lack of supervisions and can not effectively curb the judiciary local protectionism and judicial corruption, making people pay more and more attention to judicial supervision by the media. And indeed the media has played a very good roll in the protection of judicial oversight independent of the executive power, in curbing judicial corruption, and expanding the scope of open trial, establish the law concept of the public.The second part of this article probes into the implied risk of departing from the rule of law from media monitoring justice. Because of the huge difference between the media and the justice, there are many problems in media monitoring justice. The essence of the justice is the power of judge, whose basic function is to settle disputes, and is the final remedies of rights. However, due to judicial corruption and judicial local protectionism, in some parts of China, the formation of some serious miscarriage of justice leads people to turn to media for resort, and the medias are willing to redress the wrongs for people. The above-mentioned form such a phenomenon that in some places to find a judge is inferior to look for reporters, to some extent the media replaced the court. The offside of media monitoring is in "trial by media" phenomenon. In this section, through the "Jin-Zhu Zhang case" the author analyses the reason why the media is able to influence the administration of justice. The media capture the attention of party and government leaders in some cases. And through the intervention from party and government power, they affect the administration of justice.The third part of this article discusses how to make the relationship between media and justice ruled by law. By other's faults, wise men correct their own. There are many learning-worthy places on the practices the Western rule of law country used in balancing the relationship between the media and the justice. The relevant legislation and practice experience in Germany, Britain, and the United States has shown that it is the principle of solving the relationship between the media and the justice to make judicial independence fully protected, meanwhile the freedom of the press fully safeguarded in system. In order to prevent the impact of the media made on justice, we must not only impose the necessary restrictions on the media, but also take some measures in the litigation system to reduce the impact of the media. By reference from the foreign, and based on the actual practices in China, the author made some superficial recommendations for the reconstruction of the relationship between the media and the justice in the final.