The decline of local journalism is now having an impact on the justice system, writes Dispatch editor James Cracknell

When I was a trainee reporter working for a newspaper in Warwickshire, some 18 years ago, one of my regular tasks was to walk down to the local magistrates court to collect a paper copy of that day’s court listings.

I would scan these listings for any interesting cases that were coming up that day and, if they were deemed newsworthy, I would pop along to report on the proceedings.

Even though the most serious crimes will always end up at a crown court for trial, the magistrates is where the accused is first asked to appear after they have been charged, before they are referred on. It would, therefore, be the first chance to get a look at someone who had been accused of murder, or another serious crime.

At another newspaper I worked at, in West London, I once attended a magistrates hearing where four teenagers had – the night previously – attacked a cab driver and killed him. Because they were aged under 18, they were entitled to anonymity, but as a member of the press I made a representation to the judge myself, making a formal request for their anonymity to be lifted in the public interest. The request was denied, but this is an example of the sort of thing that only a journalist attending court can do.

As for crown courts, covering the big trials is incredibly time consuming. They can last for several days, weeks, or even months. To be able to write a balanced series of reports, you need to attend every day, otherwise you risk missing key evidence presented by one side or another.

It can therefore be very expensive for a publisher – local or national – to commit one of their journalists to cover a trial for such a length of time. This is why there are specialist court reporting agencies, who can sell the copy they produce to multiple outlets at the same time.

The problem now, of course – in the age of the internet, smartphones, social media and artificial intelligence – is that many local newspapers don’t have enough staffing resources to send a reporter to a magistrates court every day, nor to pay for an agency’s report of a crown court trial.

Instead, local newspapers often end up relying on press releases sent out by police forces, usually only at the point when a trial is concluded – and a conviction is secured. You can probably guess why this might be problematic. When trials collapse, or when an accused person is acquitted, the police don’t send out any press release whatsoever.

At Enfield Dispatch, we use Met Police press releases because, without them, we would hardly have the capacity to report on any crime at all. We have never had a crime reporter, nor general reporters who have the time to spend attending court, because we can’t afford to employ them.

There have been exceptional times – such as when crossbow killer Kyle Clifford was being hunted by police – when we’ve gone down to the scene to do some breaking news reporting. But when Clifford attended court, we were not there, and we relied on a police press release to report on his eventual conviction.

Court reporting is now in danger of dying out completely. The skills needed to be an effective court reporter are quite unique – with shorthand being essential. But most journalism colleges make shorthand an optional module now.

Without journalists in court, the justice system does not receive the scrutiny it needs. We don’t have a solution to this problem, but we know that it won’t be solved without more people being willing to support local newspapers like ours. Please help us if you can.

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Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

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