Ball is in your court ... just stay out of trouble

It was 1972, one of the first days of my cadetship in journalism. Our town was 45km from Melbourne. Now, it’s so big, not many people know people. In those pre-expansion days, everybody knew everybody. My boss sent me to the local court. Afterwards, one fella made a beeline to me and said: “Don’t print my name, my parents don’t know I’m in court and they will kill me if they find out.” Nigh five decades on and guess what? The only things that have changed are the names of the people and places. There are two sides of court, but I assure you, there’s only one you want to be on. People don’t realise how serious and scary the other is, until they are on it. Believe me, I’ve been there. If you appear in court, there’s a chance your name will appear in the paper. And people don’t realise how serious, and embarrassing, that is until it happens. Newspapers, no matter how big or small, have a responsibility to report the news. So if you don’t want your name in the paper in a court-related story, don’t do the wrong thing and get charged. Simple as that. Peter Sweeney is a reporter at The Geraldton Guardian