Final-Year-Law student, Naz Khan, is the first Staffordshire University student to have had an academic publication in The Legal Cheek.

Drawing on contemporary examples, the article focuses on how things, such as social media and ‘Citizen Journalism’, threaten a legal principal of the UK’s Human Rights Act: ‘the presumption of innocence’.

“Sometimes there can be smoke without fire, says Staffordshire University law student Naz Khan”

In the article, Naz explains that ‘the presumption of innocence, an integral part of the right to a fair trial, exists as a guarantee of an individual’s innocence if and until they can be proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law. And as we all know, the burden of proof lies with the prosecution. But the presumption is systematically ignored as the cases of Sir Cliff, Jackson and many others demonstrate. The media publishes names, and commentators on social media defame.’

The Legal Cheek is a online news source for junior lawyers and law students and it is a great achievement and experience for a student to have their article published.

Naz has said he is “very grateful to be the first ever student from Staffordshire University to have an article published in Legal Cheek. For students it is very difficult to get their work out there. I hope that by having a publication to my name that this will pave the way for other students and encourage them to pursue academic writing”.

Read the full article on The Legal Cheek here.