On June 29, 2019, NCSC delivered a workshop to approximately 71 participants, including judges, magistrates and registrars of the Trinidad and Tobago judiciary on judicial ethics and social media. NCSC deployed two legal experts to conduct the training.
Judicial officials learned about the significance of public trust and confidence, legitimacy, accountability, constitutional & international treaty obligations in the judiciary. NCSC Experts led discussions on the tremendous potential social media offers the judiciary by improving transparency through communication with the public. Hypothetical case scenarios enabled participants to apply their new knowledge to factual scenarios.
Social media has the potential to increase the public’s understanding of the law and to bring transparency to the criminal justice sector in Trinidad and Tobago. However, misuse or lack of standard practice on social media usage may worsen the public’s perception of the justice sector. Although the Bangalore Principles were created before the rise of social media, the standards set forth in these Principles have been identified by UNODC as the premier guide for the online comportment of judges. Recognizing the Bangalore Principles as the standard of social media usage will help create consistency among judges, magistrates and registrars in their usage of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. Through the NCSC training on social media usage and judicial ethics, participants learned how to navigate the media environment.
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