[JURIST] Jim McGinty [official profile], attorney general of Western Australia [government website], has announced plans to introduce legislation that would allow for regular television broadcast of court proceedings in the state, which would make the state's courts [official list] the first in the country to broadcast proceedings regularly. The proposal comes weeks before the completion of a high-tech, high security courthouse in Perth, the state capital, constructed to counter security concerns raised after a much-publicized courthouse attack in 2004. McGinty has made it clear that broadcasting would be done in a manner that would not "overthrow traditions but make it modern and efficient" while at the same time not jeopardizing the privacy of jurors, victims or witnesses. The legislation would not affect all of Australia, only state courts. AAP has more.

The proposed measure is similar in spirit to an amendment [PDF] approved [JURIST report] by the US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] last week that would allow US Supreme Court proceedings to be televised.