The Open Justice week project, which aims to capture a week in the life of the justice system via extensive use of social media, has been dealt a blow by having permission to live tweet a court case refused on its first day.

The decision is likely to heavily impact upon the success of the experiment, organised by journalist Cristina Theodoli of the Scottish Press Club, and blogger James Doleman.

"On the first day of Open Justice Week we received the disappointing news that we will be not allowed to live tweet a full Scottish trial," Theodoli said.

"Our colleagues south of the border can now tweet from any trial or court case without having to ask for permission here in Scotland there are no such guidelines and journalists have to apply directly to a trial's judge if they want to use social media to report.

"Yet while a good few have applied, not one single journalist has been given permission to tweet a full trial so far."

Permission to live tweet court proceedings has been given on limited occasions in the past in Scottish court cases.

Theodoli said that the Scottish Court Service were approached three weeks before the proposed trial began to seek permission to tweet.

She said that she had received "a short email stating that the Judge has a number of concerns that he feels should be taken up at a senior level and the timescale would not allow for it."

"The Head of Judicial Communications in Scotland, Elizabeth Cutting, who herself has been of great help throughout the application process, said that eventually guidelines will be put in place but, at the moment, they are still working to ensure those are as comprehensive as possible," she added.