Journalist essentially derided court's pronouncement (5)
I believe the answer is:
edict
'pronouncement' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'journalist essentially derided court's' is the wordplay.
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'essentially' means to look at the middle letters.
'court' becomes 'ct' (abbreviation used in road names).
The middle letter of 'derided' is 'i'.
'ed'+'i'+'ct'='EDICT'
(Other definitions for edict that I've seen before include "Official order" , "Declaration" , "Cited an official proclamation" , "Canon" , "Formal order" .)