Twitter allowed during Assange bail hearing

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's bail hearing has made legal history, as the judge conducting the proceedings allowed reporters to send live updates of the case on the social networking website Twitter.

Howard Riddle, the Chief Magistrate of a district court here, relaxed the rules and agreed that reporters could send the short messages, known as "Tweets", as long as they did so "quietly" and "did not disturb" the court, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported today.

It said the majority of the tweets were posted by Alexi Mostrous, a Times journalist, and Heather Brooke, the Freedom of Information campaigner.

Although there is no central rule banning the use of mobile phones or other electronic devices in court, in practice they are prohibited during hearings.

But it emerged that senior judges are "actively considering" whether courts should allow Tweets, the paper said.

The report noted that the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, in a lecture in Belfast last month openly pondered an easing of restrictions.

"If it is possible to file a story via e-mail from a laptop in court, then why is Twitter any different?" he asked. "On the other hand tape-recordings are prohibited by statute. Why is Twitter in the form of text-based transmission of material from court any different?"

A spokesman for the judiciary was quoted as saying by the paper: "The questions raised by the Lord Chief Justice in his recent lecture regarding the use of Twitter and the principles of open justice are under active consideration by the senior judiciary."

39-year-old Assange was yesterday granted bail by the court on strict conditions in a case related to charges of sexual assaults against him in Sweden but he will remain in prison as Swedish prosecutors decided to appeal the judgement.

The court had earlier granted Assange conditional bail on the requirement of a bond amount of 240,000 pounds, among other conditions to ensure that he does not flee the country.