Open Justice in the Digital Age: Balancing Transparency with Judicial Protection
By Mohamed Wurie Bah Esq
Mohamed Wurie Bah is a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of Sierra Leone and a 2024–2025 Chevening Scholar. He holds an LLM with Distinction in Innovation, Technology, and the Law from the University of Edinburgh. A specialist in digital governance, Mohamed served on the technical drafting committee for Sierra Leone’s Cybersecurity and Crime Act 2021. He is currently the Head of the Law Department at Imatt College and the founder of Wivo Legal Tech, a platform dedicated to the intersection of law and technology in Africa.
Abstract
This article examines the emerging practice of the Sierra Leone Judiciary of publishing imagery and personal identifiers of presiding judges on social media platforms. While intended to promote transparency and 'Open Justice' under the 1991 Constitution, this trend creates a significant legal friction with the Cybersecurity and Crime Act 2021. By analysing the implications of 'Institutional Doxxing' and the erosion of 'practical obscurity,' this study argues that such digital visibility inadvertently transforms neutral arbiters into targets for cyber-harassment and physical retaliation within the 'virtual battlespace' of the Fifth Estate. Furthermore, it explores how this 'performance-based' communication, fuelled by the 'online disinhibition effect,' compromises the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct by exposing the Bench to populist pressures and 'trial by social media.' Drawing on comparative benchmarks from the UK, Kenya, and Ghana, the article concludes by advocating for a shift toward institutional branding, specifically through the redaction of quasi-identifiers and the adoption of a formal 'Judicial Communication Code of Conduct', to preserve the sanctity, neutrality, and security of the judicial office in the digital age.