Where have all the court reporters gone?

Guardian journalist Duncan Campbell bemoans the lack of court reporters in an interview published this week in the Camden New Journal and its sister title the Islington Tribune.
Campbell is interviewed by Peter Gruner about his new book 'If It Bleeds', a novel about a crime reporter, and talks about the way celebrity coverage is eclipsing crime stories in the British press.
He says: “The Daily Telegraph used to have full-time court ­correspondents, but no longer. The Press ­Association had five or six full-time correspondents at the Old Bailey, now it’s two.
“You don’t get detailed court reports any more. People decided that readers won’t read them unless there’s a ­picture of Kate Moss half-way through.
“The space once given to crime coverage now goes to celebrity. There’s a long tradition of hypocrisy in the British media with people saying how awful this obsession with celebrity is, and then running another eight pages of the famous just to show how awful it is.”
Campbell tells Gruner he is planning to leave the Guardian, where he has worked since 1987, later this year to go freelance and concentrate on writing books. He was previously Los Angeles and crime correspondent for the paper. Before the Guardian, he worked for the London Daily News, City ­Limits, Time Out and LBC radio.