Judgment was reserved on Wednesday in an application for live broadcasts of Oscar Pistorius’s murder trial in the High Court in Pretoria.<\/p>\n
Judge Dunstan Mlambo said he would deliver judgment next week in the application by news channel eNCA, joined by print media houses, MultiChoice and Eyewitness News.<\/p>\n
He would make his ruling on Tuesday at 11am.<\/p>\n
Permitting live broadcasts during Oscar Pistorius’s murder case will lead to an unfair trial, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Barry Roux SC, for Pistorius, argued that media activities in court would have an effect on several aspects of the paralympian athlete’s trial.<\/p>\n
“Why can’t this be like any other trial? Why is he different? Is it because he ran fast on the track?” Roux asked in court.<\/p>\n
“Does it mean that if you are a well-known person there has to be an infringement on your rights? I am talking here about his [Oscar’s] rights. Should we allow a potential infringement of his rights because of his profile?”<\/p>\n
Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo reminded Roux his client was a public figure. He asked Roux to show the court how the media’s presence would jeopardise the case.<\/p>\n
Roux said: “It is different to know that there are journalists listening to you, because there are always people in the public gallery, than to know that your voice is going the world over?”<\/p>\n
Pistorius’s legal team wants the court to ban recording and broadcasting of witness testimony.<\/p>\n
Roux said lawyers for Reeva Steenkamp’s parents had not been informed about the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) consent to the live broadcast of the trial.<\/p>\n
He cautioned the court not to allow a criminal case to run simultaneously with a “media trial”.<\/p>\n
Pistorius is accused of killing Steenkamp, his girlfriend, in February last year. His trial is to be heard in the High Court in Pretoria from March 3 to 20.<\/p>\n
The application to film the proceedings was brought by news channel eNCA, joined by print media houses, MultiChoice and Eyewitness News.<\/p>\n
A 24-hour TV channel dedicated to the trial would be launched on DSTV on March 2.<\/p>\n
The NPA on Tuesday said it would not oppose the application, although NPA spokesman Nathi Mncube said it did have a number of conditions. He would not elaborate at the time.<\/p>\n
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