Editorial: Cameras in court help keep justice in focus

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Updated: February 26, 2012 8:09AM

Ordinary Americans are the best check on bad government and the best champions of good government, including our courts. It is imperative, then, that all citizens be afforded every opportunity to keep a careful eye on that government, without buffers or filters.

The Illinois Supreme Court’s announcement this week that news cameras and electronic news recording will be permitted in Illinois trial courtrooms for the first time helps to fill that need. The pilot project — circuit courts must apply to take part — will give Illinoisans better insight into how fairly the courts operating in their name are functioning.

There are potential drawbacks. Witnesses may hesitate to come forward if they think cameras will broadcast intimate details of their lives. Efforts to arrive at the truth could be sidetracked by lawyers or others more interested in showboating. Criminals in big trials could become celebrities or — even if they are acquitted — pariahs. Elected judges may hesitate to make unpopular rulings in sensational cases.

But cameras in the courtroom are far from a new concept. Thirty-six states already allow them, and those states have not run into serious problems.

Numerous protections have been written into the Illinois program. Divorce, adoption, juvenile, child custody and some other cases will be off limits. Witnesses in forcible felony cases may object to extended media coverage. Informants, undercover officers and relocated witnesses may do so as well.

In recent years, many of us have been dismayed by the number of men convicted in Illinois courtrooms who later were found to be innocent. But most people don’t have the time to travel to a courthouse every day to follow a particular case. Televised trials would give them a chance to see how things really work in the courtroom and to judge for themselves whether or which reforms are needed.

Not everyone is a fan of courtroom cameras. Most notably, the U.S. Supreme Court bans them.

But we expect the people of Illinois will quickly come to appreciate the value of the pilot program, modeled after how things are done in Iowa, and make cameras in the courtroom permanent.