Open justice and empty chairs

Two interesting comments from the MediaGuardian website this morning: the first is a comment from Greenslade on the surprising and concerning refusal of a court in Croydon to allow the publication of the name of a man convicted of child sex abuse offences on the basis that the publicity would upset his own children (for more on this, see here). The second is a short comment by Jonathan Freedland regarding the increasing (?) tendency of government ministers to refuse to appear on the more challenging broadcast programmes to discuss controversial issues.