sleuth - the future of court reporting…
…because justice should be seen to be done
In March 2019, Solent News became one of the first independent news agencies to win funding from Google’s Digital News Initiative for its Sleuth court reporting project.
Our proposal was based on our heartfelt belief that in a healthy democracy, justice should not only be done, but should manifestly be seen to be done.
Court reporting is a news agency’s lifeblood. It is where some of our best stories are found and where young reporters learn some of the crucial skills of their trade.
Yet it is in decline.
For more than a decade, editors, judges, legal experts and media commentators have been warning that the drop in court reporting is putting our justice system in jeopardy.
Budget cuts - particularly in local papers - have meant that major courts no longer have full time reporters based there.
And they also now lack the resources to look thoroughly at court lists in advance and spot potential stories worth covering.
With the support of Google, we will develop a bespoke piece of customisable software to digitise and crawl through traditional court lists with the aim of surfacing and reporting on stories that would otherwise go unreported.
As we said in our bid: ‘The decline in court reporting is a threat to the democratic principle of open justice. Our proposed software would do the job for them, scouring otherwise unread lists and finding - through programmable keyword searches - cases to send reporters to. If successful, Sleuth would be a vital newsroom tool that allows for better allocation of resources while ensuring that justice is not only done but seen to be done as well.
You can read the full details here: