The UK Supreme Court is to begin issuing real-time news on its judgments by Twitter, starting this week.

The @UKSupremeCourt account has been set up to make the court’s proceedings as accessible and visible as possible and to engage with people who are not familar with its work, a court spokesman told the Associated Press.

The court’s communications team were keen to have the account set up in time for the ruling in WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition appeal, which is expected later this month.

The Twitter launch comes almost a year to the day since the Supreme Court gave the green light for journalists and other members of the public to use Twitter and email in the courtroom.

Photo of Supreme Court by Shark Attacks on Flickr. Some rights reserved.