Online Coverage of Mayor Larry O'Brien's Trial
How Twitter, Blogs Report Ottawa Mayor's Trial Live From Court
The first few days of O'Brien's trial had little to do with allegations of bribing opponent Terry Kilrea to drop out of the 2006 mayoral race, but instead addressed how information could be electronically dispersed from court.
A week earlier, on April 28, lawyers representing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation requested video cameras to be allowed in the courtroom because of the high public interest of the trial.
Modern-day Ruling
And though Justice J. Douglas Cunningham denied the news agency's wish for video coverage, he did make allowances for Blackberrys and "other such devices" in a discretionary ruling applied solely to this trial.
"What we are talking about here is instant-text transmission to the blogosphere, but that is the world in which we live," stated the judge, later noting, "so long as any texting is done in an unobtrusive way and does not affect the running of the trial."
And they were off. Journalists from the CBC, the Ottawa Citizen, the Ottawa Sun – to name a few – began filing tweets (Twitter updates) from court. More news organizations would join the RSS-feed frenzy using trial-dedicated blogs, offshoots from their major web sites.
Play-by-play
Video it was not – but for avid followers of courtroom 36, perhaps Cunningham's ruling was a blessing in disguise. The nine-to-five grind does not always allow for easy access to streaming video and audio. With more emphasis placed on online updates, web surfers needed only hit the refresh button to access tweets at a near-live speed – firewall-permitting, of course.
On May 11, reporters finally had something to sink their teeth into as Kilrea took the stand. The Ottawa Sun's Derek Puddicombe posted descriptive play-by-play to blog Sun and the City: "Just an observation, but as O'Brien listens to Kilrea's testimony he looks like he's ready to lunge at his accuser."
As Kilrea delivered his testimony and was later cross-examined by the defense, the Ottawa Citizen's Glen McGregor kept himself busy with Twitter. Using both an iBook and a Blackberry, he furiously hammered out Tweets – at times, as quickly as a stenographer.
"I'm finding it more work than I had imagined," said McGregor. "I type quickly so getting the tweets out isn't a problem, but it cuts into the time I would normally use in court to ... update Citizen web site readers on the trial."
The Ottawa Citizen also employed web application CoveritLive, which is described by developers as a "web-based live blogging tool that allows you to broadcast live commentary to your readers."
CoveritLive allowed the Citizen to show their Twitter updates in an embedded window on their web site, allowing readers one-stop access.The experience is comparable to watching a Flash movie or streaming video, only it exclusively delivers automatically updating, ticker-style bulletins.
Inherent Pitfalls
But with all the new methods came a few snags.
McGregor reported frequent losses of internet connectivity in the courtroom, for one. And with tweets limited to 140 characters-or-less, speed is of the essence, making it difficult to maintain factual accuracy.
At times, supplementary tweets were sent out correcting older ones or providing clarification.
The line between citizen- and journalist-generated news continues to blur. The use of Twitter and blogs to post live updates from court is new in Ottawa. And although Cunningham was clear that his ruling should not set a precedent, the results of real-time reporting in the O'Brien case are sure to influence future behaviour of local court reporters.
Trial play-by-play courtesy of Twitter, blogs
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