This is not accurate. All newspapers have court reporters who report on court cases in their local area which are of general public interest. There is not some magical, unofficial sensitivity filter, on certain cases. The courts are public (unless a specific court order has been approved) and therefore if someone is charged, it is a face which is in the public domain and can be reported upon. It is a vital tenet of our legal system. I'm also shocked at the number of posters who seem to think that charges brought in court should not be reported upon in the newspapers just in case they don't result in a guilty verdict - seriously? These posters support a secretive system where such charges are hushed up just in case people who are not witnesses talk about it because they wrongly think that will be enough to prejudice the verdict and lead to a mistrial? OMG...
What is likely here is that this is part of a growing and continuing trend towards poor and limited press coverage in recent years aimed at Scotland as a whole.
I follow the courts for professional reasons and therefore very much need the Scottish newspapers in the central belt to report on cases in the year to eighteen months that cases take to get published in the official case law reports. I also need these reports to keep an eye on what is happening before a trial stage. There is now a clear trend in Scotland towards a lack of reporting on Scottish issues. While not related to the political party in power, the Scottish Government probably should be making itself more aware of the issue and address it in some shape or form. After all, what is the Scottish Parliament for?
The Guardian published an article about this problem in Scotland back in 2019, and the issue will only be worse now since Covid, some of which I will quote below: www.theguardian.com/media/2019/dec/10/scotland-newspaper-cuts-the-herald-the-scotsman
The loss of staff at Scotland’s key titles has been dramatic according to any measure. In 2009, there were about 240 journalists across the Herald, its Sunday sister and the Glasgow Times. But staff at the Herald – which has been published since 1783 – have learned in the past month of restructuring plans to further reduce its news operation to consist of three general reporters, working across seven days, with no night cover, in addition to three more reporting roles across its politics and business teams.
The Scotsman newsroom has likewise more than halved over the past decade to about a dozen reporters, with staff moving from a purpose-built office close to the Scottish parliament to a block on the edge of Edinburgh.
Journalists across both titles describe the deliberate dismantling of specialisms, bringing with it a reduction in exclusive content and splashes. As the Herald in particular continues to lose experienced reporters, industry insiders are raising serious doubts about how remaining digital staff will have the capacity or expertise to scrutinise policymakers and politicians.
Comparisons are made with the first years of the Scottish parliament, when a far healthier press held newly elected representatives to account, for example prompting the resignation of the second first minister, Henry McLeish, over an expenses scandal.
David Clegg, who was named journalist of the year at the Scottish Press Awards in April for his work revealing the initial sexual harassment allegations against the former first minister Alex Salmond, applauds colleagues for “performing daily miracles” but says cuts to reporting staff across Newsquest and JPI Media can only compromise future coverage of Scotland’s shifting political landscape.
“A second independence referendum will be an event of historic significance, and it’s vital that both sides are scrutinised by a healthy and robust media. But it’s also about the decisions of local councils, health boards and courts that deserve scrutiny on a daily basis. When you don’t have dedicated reporters covering a city like Glasgow, it affects the national conversation,” he says.*
Both the Press & Journal in Aberdeen and the Courier in Dundee substantially outsell their central belt counterparts. Newquest no longer publishes audited circulation figures for its titles, but the Herald had fallen to 22,901 a day by the end of December 2018, while the Scotsman sells 14,938 copies a day.
Off the top of my head, there are 2 Scottish stories, not involving potential child sex rings that have been very poorly reported. The Edinburgh Council statutory notices scam (which led to several CofE employees being jailed and millions of pounds worth of debt being written off due to a compulsory scheme run by the Council to force homeowners to have repairs carried out which were often unnecessary or over-charged) was reported on by the BBC, but there was simply little real interest within Scotland. Many people in Edinburgh simply don't know about it, the Scottish Parliament didn't debate it and the whole issue has been poorly reported within Scotland, although it should be one of the biggest scandals of recent times.
There is also a case which was before the Court of Session last week involving a tenant of a stately home called Rossie Priory who has challenged his eviction despite stopping paying rent in early 2016, instead utilising the number of appeals against eviction and the new landlord and tenant legislation to play the system. The Courier has reported on the case at an early stage but the national Scottish newspapers didn't take it up. Its a particularly salacious case, with the unpaid rent now surely approaching 1/2 million pounds and the court fees surely not much less. I'd quite like to know the outcome of this case as has important implications for all landlords and tenants in Scotland and represents a problem for landlords in Scotland not heard of in the rest of the world. Instead, there is nothing in the newspapers anywhere.
But you just have to look at the number of posters on this thread who think that cases brought before the courts shouldn't be reported on and should instead be hushed up (a particular problem if an Accused dies before the trial as there will be no record of them being charged in the public domain) to understand why this is a growing problem.