Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Selebi delay

Surprise! Surprise! The corruption trial of our former police chief has stalled. Again. For a month!
It's frustrating to be called on cover court case after court case that drags through our criminal justice system, where bad guys are given good deals in exchange for their evidence and the proceedings drag along and cost taxpayers a fortune at the end of the day.
We journalists spent hours in court this morning covering what amounted to be an extremely short amount of court time in which it was decided that the matter would stand down so that Selebi's legal team could put together their application for his realease on ground that the state has failed to present a compelling case against him.
With heads down we took notes or tapped away furiously on laptops and netbooks, filing news updates to our respective media houses.
But for the most part we sat and chatted and teased the media spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority. We were all in firm agreement - the age of journalism where reporters were old hacks with alcohol problems are long over. Today newsrooms are juniorised to the extent where most reporters are under 30. And with technology making it possible for stories to be filed unendingly - for the internet if not a specific deadline - NOBODY has time to stop for a drink!!!

2 comments:

  1. I reckon its going to keep stalling until it gets sunk.

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  2. I suppose it could be that all that frustrating waiting around drove the reporters from the old days to drink! Hopefully modern day reporters will just be driven to the gym to take out there frustrations on the treadmill!

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