Chapter 1: Introduction conducted fairly and the accused treated justly.⁷ The right to a fair and public hearing is affirmed inarticle 14(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and p olitical r ights, 8 and in section 25 of the New Zealand Bill of 9 s ection 14 of the New Zealand Billof r  ights a ct 1990 elevates to constitutional 1.4 status the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and opinions, of any kind, in any form.¹⁰ section 5 of that a ct provides that the rights and freedoms contained in the Bill of r  ights may be subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.recent New Zealand decisions have increasingly referred to the right to freedom of expression as a justification for the open justice principle,¹¹ although the courts have described the two as still being distinct considerations: open justice is primarily concerned with the sound functioning of the judicial process in the public interest, whereas freedom of speech is more concerned with the free flow of inform 12 But the principle of open justice is not absolute. There are exceptions to it, 1.5 which result from an even more fundamental principle that the chief object of courts of justice must be to secure that justice is done.¹³ s ituations sometimes arise in which doing justice in public would frustrate justice itself. In Scott v Scott the House of Lords stated that it was generally for p arliament and not the courts to determine the exceptions to the open justice principle, but exceptions have in fact been developed by both the courts and the legislature. s ections 138 to 141 of the Criminal Justice a  ct 1985 are statutory mechanisms 1.6 designed to respond to the risks to the interests of justice which might arise from an entirely open judicial system. These are by no means the only statutory exceptions to the principle of open justice: public access to the courts or to reports of court proceedings are restricted or controlled by a number of other 7 Ibid. 8 a rticle 14(1) was ratified by New Zealand in 1978. It provides: g courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law. The press and the public may be excluded from all or part of a trial for reasons of morals, public order or national security in a democratic society, or when the interest of the private lives of the parties so requires, or to the extent strictly necessary in the opinion of the court in special circumstances where publicity would prejudice the interests of justice; but any judgment rendered in a criminal case or in a suit at law shall be made public except where the interest of juvenile persons otherwise requires or the proceedings concern matrimonial disputes or the guardianship of children.h 9 s ection 25(a) of the New Zealand Billof r  ights a ct 1990 provides: g offence has, in relation to the determination of the charge, the following minimum rights: (a) The right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial co 10 The right is also confirmed in theu niversal Declaration of Human r ights ( u  D  r Covenant on Civil and p olitical r  ights (ICC pr ),ratified by New s ee G Huscroft and p r  ishworth eds Rights and Freedoms The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and the Human Rights Act 1993 , Brookerfs, Wellington, 1995, chapter 5. 11 s ee R v Liddell [1995]1NZL Television New Zealand v R Lewis v Wilson & Horton Ltd R v Mahanga above R v Burns (Travis [2002] 1 NZL r   387, 403 405 (C 12 TVNZ v Rogers [2008] 2 NZL 13 Scott v Scott , above n 2, per Viscount Haldane, 437. 4 Law Commission Issues Paper