7.2 Civil Contempt and Criminal Contempt of Court

The classic division: Point Civil contempt Criminal contempt The conduct Wilful disobedience of a court order/ judgment — the breach of an undertaking The affronts to the court's authority: scandalising, prejudicing proceedings, obstructing justice The interest protected The private party's rights under the order (enforcement) The public interest in the administration of justice The purpose Compulsion — to force compliance (the purge) Punishment — to vindicate authority and deter The media's relevance Marginal (the media ignoring an injunction) Central — the publication contempts The criminal contempt's media faces (the exam's list): Scandalising the court: the judiciary's denigration — the imputation of corruption, bias or improper motives to judges or the institution (the attack on the judge's motives, not the judgment's reasoned critique — the line between legitimate criticism and scandalising; the genuine-inquiry and fair-comment protections); Sub judice — prejudicing pending proceedings: the trial-by-media: the coverage creating the guilt-presumption (the confession's publication, the prior-conviction report, the character assassination), the witness's identification and intimidation, the evidence's pre-publication (the jury-era rules surviving in the judge-era's ethics — the judge's insulation claimed, the public's and witnesses' contamination real); The interference's faces: the witness intimidation, the judge's harassment, the court's records and process obstruction. The sub judice rule's operation (the practical test): The proceedings must be pending: the live case — the filing-to-disposal window (published…