Oscar Pistorius trial – raises Broadcast questions
The beginning of Courts broadcast?
The media (Broadcast media) seeks an opportunity to cover more trials like it did with the Oscar Pistorius case, however the proposal has been debate-able in terms of what the law states about the court privacy and the rights of everyone involved. As it seems South Africa wants to adopt the Irish Legal world laws that allows broadcasting in courts however it is still debate-able as believed in can work against them, it was said that for instance journalists in Ireland can tweet from court but issues that can be highlighted regarding this could be such as what if someone tweets a piece of evidence, then later be disallowed (evidence).
The Law reform commission 20 years ago, in a report on contempt of court said the argument in favour of allowing cameras was sufficiently strong to sustain a recommendation that an advisory committee could establish to review the arrangements and legal provisions relating to the recording and broadcasting of court proceedings. Some people could say, defending the court rights or forbidding broadcast that the Oscar Pistorius trials were simply about entertainment, whereas others could say it is about educational benefits and of relevant information to society for maybe life lesson. Judges may not feel convinced on considering broadcast based on Pistorius trial after all he was just a public figure.
It has also been raised that OFF Broadcast journalists have a challenge of making important come to live when communicating and interpreting the information to people, relying on their common resources for support(notepads, recorders and smartphones), the information must not as boring when it reaches the audients else people won’t engage. Therefore to them it could have been a brilliant venture but for now judges do place restrictions on coverage in the interest of justice and still feel the need to continue doing so, as we have also seen the limits in Oscar Pistorius trial on what could be televised.
