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8c. 43
Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980

Part I

(h) any arrangements as to bail on committal or adjournment;
(i) whether legal aid was granted to the accused or any of the accused.

(5) If a report is published or broadcast in contravention of this section, the following persons, that is to say—

(a) in the case of a publication of a written report as part of a newspaper or periodical, any proprietor, editor or publisher of the newspaper or periodical;
(b) in the case of a publication of a written report otherwise than as part of a newspaper or periodical, the person who publishes it;
(c) in the case of a broadcast of a report, any body corporate which transmits or provides the programme in which the report is broadcast and any person having functions in relation to the programme corresponding to those of the editor of a newspaper or periodical,

shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £500.

(6) Proceedings for an offence under this section shall not, in England and Wales, be instituted otherwise than by or with the consent of the Attorney-General.

(7) Subsection (1) above shall be in addition to, and not in derogation from, the provisions of any other enactment with respect to the publication of reports and proceedings of magistrates’ and other courts.

(8) For the purposes of this section committal proceedings shall, in relation to an information charging an indictable offence, be deemed to include any proceedings in the magistrates’ court before the court proceeds to inquire into the information as examining justices; but where a magistrates’ court which has begun to try an information summarily discontinues the summary trial in pursuance of section 25 (2) or (6) below and proceeds to inquire into the information as examining justices, that circumstance shall not make it unlawful under this section for a report of any proceedings on the information which was published or broadcast before the court determined to proceed as aforesaid to have been so published or broadcast.

(9) Any report in a newspaper, and any broadcast report, of committal proceedings in a case where publication is permitted by virtue only of subsection (3) above, published as soon as practicable after it is so permitted, shall be treated for the purposes of section 3 of the 1888 c. 64.Law of Libel Amendment Act 1888 (privilege of contemporaneous newspaper reports of court proceedings) and section 9(2) of the 1952 c. 66.Defamation Act 1952 (extension