NEWS
SCHEDULES
COLUMNS
PREVIOUS TOURS
OTHER SPORTS
STATISTICS
INTERVIEWS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Cronje testimony to continue tomorrow

Our Correspondent, in Cape Town

The judgment, by a full bench comprising Judge President John Hlophe and Judges Fritz Brand and Jeanette Traverso, in the Cape Town High Court by Live Africa News Network (LANN) to permit television and live radio coverage of the King Commission's probe into cricket matchfixing, may be handed down at noon on Tuesday.

The intervention of the Institute for Democracy in SA, to support LANN's case, delayed the start of Seligson's arguments, which began only at 4 pm, as the court first wanted to hear Andrew Breitenbach, from the institute.

The commission was postponed last week until Tuesday, in anticipation of a judgment on Justice Edwin King's decision to ban TV and live radio coverage of the proceedings.

The commission's proceedings are likely to be further postponed on Tuesday, until the outcome of LANN's bid is known.

Seligson argued that LANN's review application was unjustified. Emphasising from the outset that King had not banned public or media access to the Cronje probe, but merely TV coverage and live broadcasting of the proceedings while the commission was in session.

The commission had also made daily transcriptions of the officially recorded testimony available on the Internet, Seligson told the court.

LANN's senior counsel M A Albertus told the court there was no evidence to conclude that the presence of the electronic media would inhibit potential witnesses from telling the truth.

Paul Martin Cainer, chief executive, LiveAfricaNewsNetwork, however, sounded pretty confident and said that there was little doubt that the right of the people to gather first-hand information about the proceedings of the King Commission would be granted to them.