The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is questioning a decision by the Provincial Court to ban the use of Twitter, email and texting from inside courtrooms.

The court, which hears most of B.C.’s criminal trials, last week posted a policy on its website that says while cellphones and digital transmitting devices can be brought into the courtroom, the data transmission function must be disabled.

“The quality of the courtroom digital recording and audio systems can be compromised by data transmission and thus all such data transmission functions must be turned off,” says the policy, which goes into effect Monday.

B.C. Civil Liberties Association president Rob Holmes said as long as the courts aren’t being disrupted, the public should be allowed to communicate from within the courtrooms.

“Clamping down on the ability of people unobtrusively to be able to communicate to others outside the courtroom what’s going on inside the courtroom amounts to a denial of the open court principle,” said Holmes, a senior lawyer in Vancouver.

“Everybody involved in the judicial system has to realize that they are the people’s court. The people have a right to access to them.”

The Federal Court of Canada has allowed the use of Twitter and emails for more than a year and there have been no problems, said spokesman Andrew Baumberg.

The B.C. Supreme Court says it is in the process of developing guidelines for the use of the devices, but for now is leaving it up to the presiding judge or master to decide what use may be made of the devices.

Jennifer Jordan, registrar for the B.C. Court of Appeal, said B.C.’s highest court doesn’t have a policy yet and added that anyone wishing to Twitter or email should request permission from the panel sitting on an individual appeal.