Legal ban breach

TDT | Manama

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

Publishing a full paternity judgment and case details to a newspaper has led to a lawyer standing trial, with prosecutors setting out the charges as the hearing opened.

The Lower Criminal Court was told the lawyer sent an unredacted ruling in a Sharia paternity dispute to a local journalist, exposing her client’s personal information along with details of related inquiries.

Prosecutors argued this broke the legal ban on reporting certain family cases, including marriage, divorce, custody, alimony, adultery and paternity.

The law restricts reporting in these disputes to protect family life, preserve values and maintain public order.

The prosecution presented oral and visual submissions, laid out the evidence, and examined articles published under the lawyer’s name. Their presentation also included examples of readers’ comments on social media responding to the reports.

The prosecutor said the law does not forbid publishing judicial rulings altogether but makes it conditional on strict rules, particularly to shield parties in sensitive cases.

“The lawyer is the custodian of her client’s secrets, and her most basic duty is not to disclose them,” she told the court.