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EVEN though the criminal trial of world famous blade runner Oscar Pistorius for the murder of girlfriend and glamorous model Reeva Steenkamp has been described as another boring “social-media-meets-reality-TV” event, no one can refute the pull it is having on the global viewing public.
If the early reports of the murder of Steenkamp by Pistorius had not caught people’s full attention, the second strange shooting incident he was involved in at a restaurant in Johannesburg's Melrose Arch shopping centre must have left millions the world over, from London to Auckland to Los Angeles, glued to their small screens.
This week it emerged that in this incident, Pistorius had fired a gun to the floor and asked an acquaintance to take the blame. There were many people inside the eatery, including a newly-born baby.
That many people have been following this trial is evident from the in-depth coverage given to it by broadcasters Sky News and BBC in the past couple of days. These reports have been aired during prime time television news, as editors found the story fascinates global audiences.
Because this trial is set to be very lengthy, the courtroom testimonies are going to turn countless viewers the world over into Pistorius trial junkies.
Even great defence advocates - including Robert Shapiro, the LA-based lawyer who successfully defended football player OJ Simpson in a murder case - have eagerly commented about the trial.
The retired NFL star was accused of murdering his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her alleged lover Ronald Goldman in 1994. Simpson was later acquitted.
Shapiro this week made an interesting observation about the Pistorius murder trial.
He doubted the sequence of events on the day of the murder as recounted by Pistorius.
Pistorius says he mistakenly thought Steenkamp was an intruder before shooting her to death while she was in the toilet.
But Shapiro, speaking in a TV interview this week, said in cases where one suspects that there is an intruder in the house, what usually happens is to tell the person next to you not to move an inch as you go to check what exactly is happening.
Had Pistorius tried to do this, he would have realised that Steenkamp was not in bed with him, Shapiro implied.
Shapiro in addition questioned the location of Pistorius’ gun at the time.
This trial has become one of the most interesting in modern South Africa because it involves a national hero who has fallen from grace. I believe the huge interest in it is justified.
Even though the coverage of the trial in Britain will fall off the screens soon because that country’s media tends to get bored easily by a single running story, the day the guilty or not guilty verdict is pronounced millions will still be glued to their screens.
However, others in South Africa have described the case as hyperbole, criticising the TV transmission of the trial and saying it ignores similar cases that happen in South Africa all the time.
To those who believe that this case should not be given so much viewing time because many similar ones are ignored, I would like to say they are making a good point.
But we need someone who is keen on making money to start a good and professional criminal investigation channel to give exposure to other similar cases.
- Fin24
If the early reports of the murder of Steenkamp by Pistorius had not caught people’s full attention, the second strange shooting incident he was involved in at a restaurant in Johannesburg's Melrose Arch shopping centre must have left millions the world over, from London to Auckland to Los Angeles, glued to their small screens.
This week it emerged that in this incident, Pistorius had fired a gun to the floor and asked an acquaintance to take the blame. There were many people inside the eatery, including a newly-born baby.
That many people have been following this trial is evident from the in-depth coverage given to it by broadcasters Sky News and BBC in the past couple of days. These reports have been aired during prime time television news, as editors found the story fascinates global audiences.
Because this trial is set to be very lengthy, the courtroom testimonies are going to turn countless viewers the world over into Pistorius trial junkies.
Even great defence advocates - including Robert Shapiro, the LA-based lawyer who successfully defended football player OJ Simpson in a murder case - have eagerly commented about the trial.
The retired NFL star was accused of murdering his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her alleged lover Ronald Goldman in 1994. Simpson was later acquitted.
Shapiro this week made an interesting observation about the Pistorius murder trial.
He doubted the sequence of events on the day of the murder as recounted by Pistorius.
Pistorius says he mistakenly thought Steenkamp was an intruder before shooting her to death while she was in the toilet.
But Shapiro, speaking in a TV interview this week, said in cases where one suspects that there is an intruder in the house, what usually happens is to tell the person next to you not to move an inch as you go to check what exactly is happening.
Had Pistorius tried to do this, he would have realised that Steenkamp was not in bed with him, Shapiro implied.
Shapiro in addition questioned the location of Pistorius’ gun at the time.
This trial has become one of the most interesting in modern South Africa because it involves a national hero who has fallen from grace. I believe the huge interest in it is justified.
Even though the coverage of the trial in Britain will fall off the screens soon because that country’s media tends to get bored easily by a single running story, the day the guilty or not guilty verdict is pronounced millions will still be glued to their screens.
However, others in South Africa have described the case as hyperbole, criticising the TV transmission of the trial and saying it ignores similar cases that happen in South Africa all the time.
To those who believe that this case should not be given so much viewing time because many similar ones are ignored, I would like to say they are making a good point.
But we need someone who is keen on making money to start a good and professional criminal investigation channel to give exposure to other similar cases.
- Fin24
