Editor’s Comment: Showtime in the courthouse

THE decision to accede to the demand for the televising of the Oscar Pistorius trial has the international media world in a frenzy.

So much so that an armed invasion and impending war between Russia and Ukraine is relegated to number two spot in news bulletins.

Granted, the accused was a prominent global sports personality and the victim’s name was also often in lights, but the issue seems absurdly out of proportion in terms of perspective.

Millions of people will now devote many hours to following the TV spectacle that has now overshadowed the criminal trial.

Unlike the dramatised, edited and enhanced court cases one sees on reality TV or documentaries, court cases are actually slow-moving, technical and sometimes even boring events.

The participants are not actors but ordinary people; they don’t have scripts and they have not trained to be articulate.

They mumble, they are hesitant and they get confused and forgetful.

It doesn’t make for good TV in terms of content.

But, as the name implies, it is television – it’s all about the pictures.

Does he look honest or guilty?

So, viewers will be looking, rather than listening, as the media circus does battle for the best seats in the house.

Ratings will, of course, be huge.

People – many of whom have already pronounced guilt or innocence in their own minds – will sacrifice work and family time to follow the trial.

Of course everyone wants to know whether Pistorius is guilty.

Or, to put it another way, which legal team – backed by enormous financial resources – wins the day.

And all the while, Russian tanks mobilise and the world is on the brink of another war.

And millions are denied justice because they can’t afford legal costs – or because they are illiterate, or live in a country where normal human rights are denied.

We trust our readers will put this celebrity trial in perspective.