Gosh the Sunday papers are full of it here in South Africa… Oscar this… Oscar that… he saw.. she saw … and now we all saw and read about details that have obviously been leaked to the press about that fateful evening last week when Reeva Steenkamp was shot in Oscar’s house.. allegedly by him.

It would appear that a few professionals and friends were at the scene shortly after the event. So the neighbour, the paramedics, the father, security etc I suppose can comment on what they saw and found and claim their 5 minutes of fame. Is it legal to do this? How can it prejudice the case.. all this stuff will come out in the trial anyway.

Should we be privy to this information and detail? Mmmmmm !We made Oscar our sports hero and his celebrity was stoked by ourselves so I guess yes we are entitled to know – if for no other reason our taxes will be funding the state prosecutor costs. Do we have the right to know about the dirty laundry in Sexwale vs Sexwale? Well maybe not the laundry, but we are entitled to know if a cabinet minister abuses his wife, either physically, verbally or emotionally – strangely we like our people in office to be upstanding (well I thought we did!!)… so where does the media stand in all of this invasive coverage of an individuals drama? I think there is a fine line, and I think it is crossed once details of an extremely personal nature are revealed….. mmmmmmmm but that is what is going to be revealed in both of the above cases through the judiciary processes….. catch 22 -dammed if we know and damned if we miss out !

Copyright (C) Sue Charlton 2013