Lucy Gaynor | Contributing Writer
Last week, Oscar ‘Blade Runner’ Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison for the culpable homicide of Reeva Steenkamp. The social media response was uproarious, with the Twittersphere calling for everything from 10 years to a death sentence. What these outraged tweeters and Facebookers seem to have overlooked is that the world has witnessed the death of Oscar Pistorius – on television, in newspapers, and on social media. There are two things that bother me about the whole affair: the media attention around the case, and the lack of knowledge, sensitivity and compassion shown by the general population on social media.
Firstly to the trial. From the outset, tabloid newspapers outraged the general public with blazing headlines about how Pistorius ‘murdered’ his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. At that stage we knew no such thing. He had shot his girlfriend, yes, but not necessarily murdered. There are always sensationalist headlines when it comes to crime, but for some reason nobody backed down – the general media had decided on the ‘correct’ verdict for the Pistorius case within seconds.
This made the decision to televise the trial even worse. Of course the Judge made the decision for the correct reasons – to prevent corruption in courts notorious for underhand activity – but that’s not the effect the coverage had. Instead the world could tune in and out to watch a man break down in tears and vomit on numerous occasions.
Those among us who had already decided he was guilty barely even listened to the proceedings, or the arguments of each side. All they would do would be to self-righteously sneer at this murderer, this evil human being, and think that he deserved everything he got.
This case became one of the most talked about trials since we have entered the social media age. What many people regularly fail to realise is that while freedom of speech is a magnificent thing, the true beauty of social media is freedom of debate. That was certainly the case with Oscar Pistorius. Social media sites became forums to angrily type about what an arrogant, hot-headed murderer he is, and places to scream down, and in some cases, verbally abuse anyone who tried to argue otherwise. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of people arguing otherwise. However, because they did not argue with the same angry self-righteous venom of those who believed Oscar Pistorius was guilty, they were drowned out.
Secondly we come to the verdict – five years, with the possibility of parole after two. Again, social media erupted, with newspapers such as the Metro Herald even printing some of the outraged twitter reactions. While on the face of it five years seems short even for culpable homicide as opposed to murder, these outraged tweeters are forgetting something – this man is dead. The world has watched him broken by legal fees, anxiety problems, and yes, social media reaction. This man who overcame so much to inspire so many has run his race. It is the death of an icon. The death of Reeva Steenkamp is undoubtedly a tragedy, but there is more than one tragedy in this case. The end of Pistorius’ career, and no doubt the end of any chance he had of continuing to lead a normal life, is also a tragedy – there can be no denying that. In that regard I think the media need to show a little more sensitivity.
It could not definitively be proven that this man committed murder. No amount of angry conviction and opinions can change those facts. Therefore, the punishment is, in a sense, life. The Steenkamp family themselves said that if Oscar knows a truth different to the one that came to light in court, it is he who will have to carry that burden for the rest of his life. If he really did murder his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day, there will be no psychological recovery from that trauma. And if he didn’t? If, shock horror, this man did not intend to shoot his girlfriend? He still has to live with the fact that in a split second he made a decision, the wrong decision, which ruined his life, his career, and took the life of Reeva Steenkamp, a woman he dearly loved. He will have to carry that burden with him.
Whether an accident or deliberate, there has been justice done in return for the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp. In your next moment of anger just take a few seconds to think about that before you send your angry, condemning, social media update.
