SC rules, approves live broadcast of Erap verdict

(Updated 4:36 p.m.) The Supreme Court allowed the live broadcast of the Sandiganbayan's verdict on the P4.1-billion plunder case against former President Joseph Estrada, giving media organizations access to a lone camera that will capture video footage of the proceedings. In a press briefing, SC spokesman Atty. Jose Midas Marquez said the high tribunal's public information office (SC PIO) will set up the camera inside the Sandiganbayan Special Division. He said only SC PIO personnel will operate the camera, but television networks will be allowed to hook up and broadcast the video footage. "The Supreme Court en ban has just decided to grant the urgent motion of the KBP through its president, Butch Canoy," Marquez said. He added that, "Only the video camera of the SC public information office shall be allowed inside the court room at a place to be designated by the presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan." "TV and radio stations shall be allowed to hook up with the video camera of the SC PIO and they will in turn allow other stations to hook up with them," Marquez said. The video frame will be locked only to the reader of the Sandiganbayan decision on the P4.1-billion plunder and perjury case against Estrada. "The live media coverage shall immediately cease after the reading of the decision," Marquez added. Marquez said the SC voted unanimously in favor of the urgent motion of the KBP filed earlier in the day. The motion was filed after the Sandiganbayan turned down KBP's request to allow its members to cover the promulgation of Estrada's case live. For his part, Sandiganbayan Sheriff Ed Urieta said the graft court would now await word from the SC regarding the implementation of the order. "We will look at the SC's guidelines. We will see if the camera that will be set up is in compatible with the technical requirements of the major TV stations ... including the foreign press," Urieta said in Filipino on dzBB radio. Asked if radio stations would be allowed to feed the audio from the Sandiganbayan's media room, Urieta gestured that this was now possible. In their three-page motion, the KBP said the trial and promulgation of cases must always be open to the public unless there are sensitive or confidential reasons that would prohibit people from witnessing court trials live. The dzBB report quoted Canoy as saying that people have the right to witness Wednesday’s historic event involving the country’s former highest government official. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) had previously urged the Sandiganbayan to rescind the ban. "At the very least, we ask the anti-graft court to allow pooled coverage of the proceedings. As much as the need for justice, it is equally imperative that the interests of transparency and the people's right to know be served as well," the NUJP said in a statement. "It would be an injustice if the people are deprived of the full details of such an historic occasion, whose outcome will definitely have a major impact on our national life," it added. - GMANews.TV