The trial against the rapist and murderer of Marianne Vaatstra will take place in the Leeuwarden court on March 28 and 29, 2013. Journalists and members of the Vaatstra family tweet during the trial. The name Vaatstra preceded by the hashtag, #vaatstra, has been a trending topic for two days.
Court case
Jasper S. from Oudwoude, the rapist and murderer of Marianne Vaatstra on May 1, 1999, will be tried on March 28 and 29, 2013. The court is completely cleared for this case. There is great interest. People who go to court are:
- Interested parties;
- a class of students pursuing legal training;
- police and legal assistants;
- press;
- family S,
- family of Vaatstra.
Case
The case will be substantively dealt with in two days. S. is asked to answer questions, the surviving relatives are given the opportunity to make their victim statement, the experts have their say, the Public Prosecutor holds court, S.’s lawyer speaks and S. himself speaks.
In room A of the court, where the case is being heard, sits the Vaatstra family and the man in question. Jasper S. appears before a multi-judge chamber, there are three judges who consider the case. In addition to room A, a press room has been set up, where the media can follow the case via a screen. Other interested parties sit in a second room and the S. family sits in yet another room in the building, separated from the rest.
What is special about this case is not only the media attention itself. This can be explained by the impact the crime has had on society and the long time between the act and the arrest of the perpetrator. The reporting of the case is particularly special. Various journalists tweet the developments of the lawsuit in real time . It shows a horribly accurate picture of the trial and the facts that were committed. The case was not allowed to be broadcast on television. The court determined that radio and television are more intrusive media than reports in the newspaper or via Twitter. The practice of this process shows that the direct Twitter report is almost more compelling than the direct images could have been.
The indictment of Public Prosecutor Henk Mous is recorded and broadcast by the Omrop Fryslân camera. There are also cameras and microphones on the square in front of the court to interview the coming and going man.
Minute
Minute by minute, you can read outside the courtroom what is being discussed within the walls of room A. The journalists tweet discreetly.
Tweeted by, among others:
- @LC_live, journalists from the Leeuwarder Courant
- @DockumerCourant
- @esvanana, reporter Northern Netherlands Volkskrant
- @karinshantidevi, journalist
- @PeterRdeV, crime reporter
- @lammert, journalist One Today
- @OMNoordNL, public information officers for the Northern Netherlands
- @RedOmropFryslan, journalists at Omrop Fryslân
- @SaskiaBelleman, court reporter Telegraaf
- @Doriski, journalist, NRC correspondent
Family
Freddy Vaatstra occasionally sends out a tweet from the family. Under the account name @FreddyVaatstra, he tweets about the first day of the trial:
“Even time could not tolerate the lying and cheating. The clock in the courtroom spontaneously fell down last night. #vaatstra.,
The hashtag vaatstra, #vaatstra, links the tweets of all the different Twitterers on the subject of the Vaatstra case. Nu.nl publishes a live blog on its website and the Leeuwarder Courant also places the Twitter journalist’s tweets on its website .
Grumble
The various Vaatstra case Twitter users receive various grumbling tweets from opponents of the real-time Twitter report. They have had enough of Vaatstra mania, want attention for other topics, think it is too much, too sensational or too gruesome. The Vaatstra case Twitter users respond to these grumbling tweets with the answer that they don’t have to read it, they can zap away or simply turn off Twitter.
Discreet
The tweets that the journalists tweet are all involved, but discreet. There is no sensationalism, but rather a report of gruesome facts.
Twitter report
A real-time Twitter report attacks the journalists’ ability to concentrate. For two days they sit for hours listening to compelling words and tweeting about an extremely delicate issue. They cannot afford any wrong interpretations. The tweets contain the essence of what is being said. This means that journalists must listen carefully and extract the essence from the story. The excessive tweeters during the Vaatstra case served the followers at their beck and call and fought a war of attrition to do so.
read more
- Marianne Vaatstra – Arrest of the murderer
- Marianne Vaatstra – Letter of apology from murderer Jasper S
- Marianne Vaatstra – The pocket knife by Jasper S
- Marianne Vaatstra – Jasper S. and the lawsuit
- Marianne Vaatstra – Disaster tourism during court case