CHIEF Justice Mumba Malila says the Judiciary’s Policy Committee agrees that some selected court proceedings should be broadcast live, adding that they are currently at the stage of crafting guidelines.
In October 2022, Justice Malila said the Judiciary was considering allowing the broadcast of public interest court cases live during deliberations.
He added that this matter was to be reviewed during a Judiciary Policy Committee meeting.
Speaking during a media interaction, Thursday, Justice Malila revealed that the proposal was approved when the committee met in March this year.
“I had made an undertaking two or three years ago, undertaking that this is an issue I would personally follow through. It’s part of the open justice concept, but not only that, it also enhances accountability if proceedings in court are broadcast live. I had undertaken then that I would take the issue before the policy committee of the Judiciary.
The policy committee did meet in March this year and I’m glad to say that the policy committee is in total agreement that some selected proceedings should be broadcast live, not all proceedings, some will be broadcast live. Now, what we are doing at the moment is to try and craft some protocols.
The advisory committee, which Justice Muzenga here chairs, the one to do with public relations, has been tasked to draft protocols because if we implement the live broadcast of proceedings without guidelines, without rules, we do expect that there will be quite some chaos.” he said.
“So, the position now is that the advisory committee is still working on the draft rules which we do expect to be concluded within the shortest possible time. There will be made available, a statutory instrument, and then we can inform the media that they are now free in some cases to broadcast live. This issue is actually very significant to us, because you all recall not too long ago, a couple of two weeks now when we had a matter that was coming up in the Constitutional Court.
It was one of immense public interest and a lot of people wanted to come and be part of the proceedings which they are entitled to do but regrettably we can’t accommodate everybody”.
He said broadcasting some cases live would help dispel misconceptions that something was being hidden.
“These proceedings are supposed to be open to the public and so live broadcast will in effect be an extension of the open access principle. Instead of the people coming to be part of the audience, they can sit in the comforts of their homes and watch the proceedings live.
There is something new about it. I think it’s very important, it also helps us [because] we can’t contain too many people. We don’t have facilities and I think it is a strain. The problem is that when you have the police trying to stop the people and all that, there’s invariably some misperception that perhaps something is being hidden…
But if those proceedings can be broadcast live, then I don’t see too many people wanting to come here. They would rather sit and wait in the comfort of their office or in the comfort of their homes. I hope this will help us and I do sincerely hope that my colleague here, chairperson of the advisory committee, will work out these protocols quickly so that as soon as they are available, we shall implement that particular undertaking that we made,” said Chief Justice Malila.