Promoting Access to Justice through the Broadcasting of Legal Proceedings

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2022/v25i0a8122

Keywords:

Access to justice, constitutional rights, rights awareness, broadcasting

Abstract

This article considers a lack of legal literacy as a barrier to access to justice. The article then considers the potential effectiveness of introducing media-based teaching tools to South African society in an attempt to increase the rights awareness of South Africans. In so doing, the article proposes ways in which this improved rights awareness can assist South Africans to engage with the law, their rights, and the judicial system as a whole in a manner which promotes improved access to justice. It considers television-based teaching tools already implemented in the country as well as possible future interventions. It draws on past television-based education initiatives in South Africa in an effort to consider how South Africans engage with television-based teaching tools. It further draws on the open justice principle to argue for the increased broadcasting of legal proceedings. The article then considers television in three other jurisdictions and undertakes an assessment of the effect of television on our cognitive and subliminal engagement with the law. The discussion on other jurisdictions includes how fictional legal programming, syndicated court programmes as well as other forms of "Court TV" have contributed both positively and negatively to the legal consciousness of those societies.

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Author Biographies

Kgomotso Mokoena, University of Johannesburg

Lecturer University of Johannesburg BA LLB LLM (Wits). E-mail kbmokoena@uj.ac.za

Louis Koen, University of Johannesburg

Law Mentor University of Johannesburg LLB LLM (UJ). E-mail lawmentor@uj.ac.za

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Published

03-06-2022

How to Cite

Mokoena, K., & Koen, L. (2022). Promoting Access to Justice through the Broadcasting of Legal Proceedings. Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal, 25, (Published 3 June 2022) pp 1 – 28. https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2022/v25i0a8122

Issue

Section

Articles