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Strand News calls on news industry to support court coverage

Posted: 02/06/09 By: Laura Oliver

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Strand News, the news agency covering the UK's Royal Courts of Justice, is appealing to its users to help support the service during the current economic climate.

The income of the agency, which employs seven reporters with more than 50 years of court reporting experience between them, is currently not covering its costs, editor James Brewster told Journalism.co.uk.

But with support and small donations from users of the service, the vital role the agency plays in covering the UK's courts for can continue, he added.

The agency has asked publications to: use the service wherever possible; process invoices for copy as quickly as possible; and settle any outstanding invoices before the end of June.

"All we need in order to survive this is just a little bit of help. We're not doing too badly," said Brewster, who acknowledged the fact that many of the agency's customers are also facing challenging economic times.

Strand News is one of the only services to supply coverage of the The Royal Courts of Justice, The Court of Appeal (Civil and Criminal Divisions), High Court (Queen's Bench, Chancery and Family Divisions) and the Administrative Court, in particular to the regional press.

"We report on the doings of the high judiciary, one of the three estates of government, and we believe that our role is one of constitutional, as well as commercial, importance. If we were to disappear, we think that a very substantial hole would be left in the news coverage of almost every media outlet in the country," said Brewster in a letter to editors.

The absence of an agency such as Strand News would also 'raise very serious questions over the media's collective ability to fund a real newsgathering effort at the heart of government', he added.

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