EACH week and online, this publication carries details of cases that appear before our Magistrates Courts up and down the length of west Wales.

We do so because it is important that you know what is going on in your neighbourhood and who is guilty - or not - of breaking the laws that ensure our safety and security.

It is a vital public service and it is a vital element too of the criminal justice system.

We report cases without fear or favour, and we have a moral and professional duty to do so. We also have a legal duty, with onerous penalties and consequences if we fail to get it right, to tell faithfully what happens in our courts.

For those of who who appear before our courts and who are named within our printed pages and online reports, being part of the public record is part and parcel of being charged by police and being brought to court.

Very often, those “frequent flyers” who appear before magistrates’ benches are full of bravado with their cronies and friends or family. But the justice system is a great leveller, and part of the process is your name appearing in print or online, with the outcome plain for all to see. Very often, that is more punishing that the sentences or fines handed down as part of the judicial process.

We will continue to do so and we won’t be swayed.

We also have a duty to ensure that those convictions and acquittals remain part of our archives, both in print and digitally. It’s what happened. And it is not for us as journalists to change what happened.

Each week, readers ask for their records to be removed from our digital archives. We can’t do it, nor will we. Would you ask us to take a razor blade and slice away the story from every newspaper printed simply because it does not now suit you?

If we were to remove items from our archive, where would be start and where would we end?

The record is the record, just as someone judicial record remains their record. Google might be able to assist with a right to be forgotten in online searches. But our archives will remain unaltered. And for that this newspaper will make no apology.