How newspapers work

You heard it here first. But here’s a story you haven’t heard before

Police have lost interest in catching scammers and fraudsters, according to a leading barrister quoted in today’s newspapers. Here’s The Times:

This is the Telegraph:

And here is the Irish News:

Perceptive readers will notice three things:

1. These stories all begin in almost exactly the same way. This suggests that the original copy was supplied by a news agency, such as PA.

2. The Times and the Telegraph describe Clare Montgomery as a High Court judge — which is clearly wrong. The Irish News correctly describes her as a deputy High Court judge, which is presumably what the news agency wrote; I do not have access to the wires and so cannot check. To clarify: an individual ceases to practise as a barrister or solicitor on appointment as a High Court judge. “Deputy” in this context means “part-time”. Montgomery sits as a part-time judge in several courts — perhaps for around four weeks a year — but works predominantly as a barrister. Any journalist should know that you can’t be a barrister and a High Court judge at the same time.

3. I reported Montgomery’s remarks here two days ago. To avoid confusion, I simply said she “sits as a part-time judge”. Most of the quotes in today’s papers were taken from my piece:

   Time to rethink the Serious Fraud Office?

That’s fine, of course. It was not my interview. I didn’t listen to it when it first came out as a podcast last month. I only came across it because someone alerted me to it. And I didn’t write it up immediately.

But it’s yet another reminder that reporters follow this blog to find out what’s happening in the law:

Joshua Rozenberg @JoshuaRozenberg

You heard it first, again: My blog yesterday: Beijing stops short of blocking British KC But Hong Kong expected to stop Tim Owen representing Jimmy Lai rozenberg.substack.com/p/beijing-stop… The Times today: Hong Kong to decide who will defend media tycoon Jimmy Lai

thetimes.co.ukHong Kong to decide who will defend media tycoon Jimmy LaiHong Kong’s political authorities, not judges, will decide whether a millionaire democracy campaigner should be represented by a British lawyer as he battles

All this has prompted one of the occasional personal reminiscences that paying subscribers have kindly told me they enjoy reading here.

The story begins in the summer of 2000. I had been a BBC staff journalist for 25 years, the last 15 as legal correspondent. At home one evening, the phone rang. This was not a producer booking me for a morning broadcast. It was the editor of a national newspaper.