Navigating the court system can be daunting as a journalist. Limited access to documentation, confusing bureaucratic processes, and even outright hostility from governments and the courts can make it difficult to cover legal issues.

Luckily, some people working within the court system - judges, lawyers, government employees - are collaborating with journalists to help them access court documents, navigate bureaucracy, and advocate for more transparency within the justice system.

Some provinces have media liaison committees, forums for media and the Judiciary to discuss issues of mutual concern and consider possible solutions. Some organizations, like the Canadian Media Lawyers Association (CMLA), are on a mission to promote improved laws and policies for free expression and openness of courts. The CAJ is working to establish a national group of journalists who cover courts so they can share their knowledge and work together to reduce barriers to their work.

Join Danielle Stone, senior legal counsel at CBC and past CMLA president, and Blair Rhodes, producer at CBC News, to learn how journalists can collaborate with those working in the court system. Both are members of media liaison committees and have spent years navigating Canadian legal systems - Rhodes, covering the courts, and Stone, defending those who do so. While court access procedures vary from province to province, journalists from across the country can learn how to form relationships with people working in the courthouse, how to access their province’s legal resources and what federal legislation protects them.

Interviewees:

• Blair Rhodes, Producer, CBC News (Halifax)

• Danielle Stone, Senior Legal Counsel, CBC

Interviewer: Emelia Fournier, CAJ program coordinator