Free training on the family court reporting pilot

Published February 13 2023

Until now, the powers exercised by family judges have been hidden behind closed doors. However, if you're a journalist working in one of three pilot areas – Cardiff, Leeds and Carlisle – you can now take advantage of a revolutionary scheme that allows you to report what you observe in private hearings held in the family court. Subject to strict rules on anonymising family members, you can also interview any party to a case, and are entitled to see and report from certain court documents.

Issues covered daily by the family courts include:

Adoption
Removal of children into care
Domestic abuse
Female genital mutilation
Parental contact with children
Deprivation of liberty
Forced marriage protection orders

To complement the information provided on our family court reporting pilot hub, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism is offering two half-day workshops to support journalists as they navigate the new rules for reporting what takes place in the Family Court in the pilot areas.

This free half-day workshop, delivered by the award-winning family court reporter Louise Tickle and the family barrister Lucy Reed, will help you understand the new reporting rules, how to keep within the law when you publish, and how to anonymise and protect the family members whose cases you want to report.