THE National Press Club decision to name the Oscar Pistorius trial as its Newsmaker of the Year for 2014 will, no doubt, raise eyebrows in certain quarters.
But then the Press Club, which is based in Pretoria, has shown before that it is not afraid of controversy, having previously nominated the rhino as its newsmaker. The decision which caused criticism at the time was vindicated by the rhino poaching crisis, with 49 rhino already having been killed by poachers this year.
In some ways the decision to make the award to a trial rather than an individual, as has been done traditionally, underlines what is clearly a shift in perceptions of what makes news in South Africa.
It has to be underlined that the award is not an “honour”, but rather a recognition of importance and effect of a headline-grabbing story.
In the case of the Oscar trial, a number of important landmarks were made, outside of the very real human drama which played out within Court GD of the High Court in Pretoria.
While there had been limited occasions in the past when courts allowed television and electronic media inside, the Oscar trial saw unprecedented media interest locally and globally.
South Africa had its first full taste of saturation media coverage, including a dedicated TV channel and tweeting, alongside traditional media reports and books. The impact was enormous.
“The shroud of secrecy has been ripped off court proceedings,” said Professor Johannes Froneman of the Journalism Department at North-West University in his reaction to the decision to name the trial as a newsmaker. “We could all see, hear and read… how the trial was unfolding”.
The trial set new guidelines for court reporting in South Africa; it exposed how little the average citizen actually understood of the intricacies of court procedure and it was a learning curve for many as new phrases entered our vocabulary.
It made stars of Judge Thokozile Masipa, prosecutor Gerrie Nel, defence lawyer Barry Roux as well as numerous journalists, and while he languishes in jail, Oscar, of course, remains the most newsworthy of all.