It was recently reported in the Press that Judge H. W. Falk, of Los Angeles, had granted permission for microphones to be installed in the witness-box and at counsels’ table in his court in order that the trial for murder of a former District Attorney might be broadcasted.

An innovation so profoundly affecting the conduct of courts of law gives rise to questions which concern intimately the judicature, the radio and the general public. It is true that the case in point hails from the United States, where the judicial atmosphere is less rarefied than it is in this country, and where restraint in matters of jurisprudence is not a particularly salient characteristic of public affairs. Its significance lies in its being the first indication that wireless threatens to invade a department of public life which has hitherto been regarded as sacrosanct, as much, one believed, by common consent, whether for reasons based on sentiment or public expediency, as, privately, on grounds of good taste. Although there does not at present appear to be any likelihood of the occasion at Los Angeles being cited as a precedent for similar action in this country, it marks an appropriate moment in which to review certain aspects of broadcasting with which considerations affecting public policy and decorum are closely bound up.