Dagga trial waiting to light up
FRUSTRATION and costs mounted yesterday for “dagga couple” Julian Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke, as the second attempt to begin court proceedings relating to the legalisation of dagga were stalled.
The trial was delayed for the second day as State prosecutor William Mukhare SC brought an application for leave to appeal Judge Natvarlal Ranchod’s decision to grant the couple’s organisation, Fields of Green for All, permission for the live streaming of proceedings.
Ranchod had granted permission to live-stream the proceedings on Friday.
Mukhare, however, explained to the court that the decision to give permission ought not to have been granted as the organisation was not a licensed broadcaster or one of the traditional media.
He said unlike traditional media, who were regulated and held accountable by various regulatory bodies, the latter were not and as such could not be held accountable for anything that might go wrong.
Mukhare said Green Fields had no broadcasting licence and might not necessarily be objective.
Additionally, he said the reasons behind the streaming could not be ascertained.
He said: “They are a third party who are directly linked to a case of being in possession and dealing in cannabis and as such ordinary rules governing the media do not apply to them.”
Advocate Reg Willis added that the couple had misinformed the court about not making a profit from broadcasting as the production company tasked to stream proceedings had even offered to provide footage for a fee to SABC and ANN7.
The defence said the reasons for the objections were not justified as the live feeds would not be edited, and modern technology meant anyone in the gallery could live-tweet proceedings anyway.
He said that, if anything, the live stream would allow for more accurate reporting of proceedings rather than afterthe-fact reports.
A request for costs associated with travel and accommodation for experts flown in from abroad to testify was reserved due to the delay in trial proceedings.
The couple, speaking outside the court, said they were frustrated with the delay in the trial as it was impacting on them financially.
Clarke said she was scrambling to change flight tickets for their experts. She said it could cost them R10 000 to change certain flight tickets.