Play-by-play of trials on Twitter and live blogs by journalists now have the blessing of the Ontario courts starting in February.

It’s all part of a new policy set out by the Ontario Superior Court that will allow lawyers and journalists to use their computers, personal electronic and digital devices, and mobile, cellular and smart phones in court.

But the strict rules for the public still apply – they’ll have to keep their devices turned off in court.

In the new world of digital communications, it’s not unusual to hear a cell phone ring in a quiet court, followed by a judge’s stern warning to turn it off.

Under the changes, such devices will be permitted as long as they’re kept on silent mode and used “in a discreet and unobtrusive manner and their signals don’t interfere with a courtroom’s recording equipment or cause a disruption.”

One media observer says it’s a case of the Ontario courts catching up.

“This makes sense, and it does follow more along the lines of what courts everywhere who are paying attention and developing policies are doing,” said Mary McGuire, a journalism professor at Carleton University who co-authored a chapter on social media in the courtroom in a forthcoming book on crime reporting.

But there still remains an out for judges — they have the final say, in any case — who object to live reporting, if they decide such communications “interfere with the proper administration of justice.”

Until now, the policy on electronic devices has been as varied as the court cases covered by reporters.

But as online communications have evolved, media outlets have found ways to report online, in real time, what’s happening in trials.

A year ago, Justice Beverley McLachlin, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, said the courts, to maintain a sense of transparency and justice, had to learn how to adapt to the use of social media because it’s fast becoming the public’s main source of information.

She concluded the interests of the media and the courts were “inextricably intertwined.”

The London Free Press broke Canadian ground in this area by live tweeting coverage of both the Bandidos massacre trial in 2009 and, earlier this year, Michael Rafferty’s murder trial in the slaying of Woodstock school girl Tori Stafford.

Tweets from those trials were sent from a secondary overflow courtroom, to which the trials were broadcast by closed circuit TV.

There have been judges in other areas of Ontario who’ve allowed live tweeting from court.

But others have forbade it. At the Shafia “honour killing” trial in Kingston, for example, where a mother, father and brother were convicted of killing four women, a judge banned tweeting inside the courtroom and the doors were locked on verdict day to stop journalists from leaving during the case.

The new rules say publication bans must be respected and no photos or video can be recorded.

If the rules are broken, judges can apply a range of sanctions — from ordering a journalist to turn off their device, to having them charged under the Courts of Justice Act.

McGuire said the new move is progress in an evolving area of the justice system. Judges and lawyers have rules set out for them and media groups will no longer have to hire lawyers and apply every time they want to use Twitter.

“It’s a new area and conventions haven’t been developed on either side, and all of this is steps forward to doing that,” she said.

jane.sims@sunmedia.ca

twitter.com/JaneatLFPress

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THE NEW LOWDOWN IN ONTARIO COURTS

Starting Feb. 1, electronic devices can be used in silent mode in courtrooms by:

— Lawyers and paralegals

— Law students and law clerks assisting lawyers

— Self-represented parties

— Journalists