JOURNALISTS may be restricted from live tweeting or blogging from inside courtrooms in NSW under proposed laws banning the use of smartphones and other devices to ''transmit information that forms part of the proceedings of a court''.

A bill before the NSW Parliament, introduced by the Attorney-General, Greg Smith, makes tweeting, blogging or publishing to a website proceedings from within a courtroom an offence punishable by a fine of up to $2200 and a year in jail.

Introduced a bill to ban live tweeting and blogging inside courtrooms ... NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith. Credit:Jacky Ghossein

While the bill empowers judicial officers to make exceptions, Mr Smith has thrown open for public discussion the question of whether media should be exempted.

Acknowledging in a speech to Parliament that it is ''important to preserve the principle of open justice'', he said the issue would be considered only after the legislation passed Parliament but before the new law was enacted at a date to be decided.