It’s caused some confusion but webcasting has allowed thousands of people to follow the Howard Hyde inquiry.
About 2,000 computers have been repeatedly logging on to watch the inquiry over the last two weeks, according to Nova Scotia Judiciary communications director John Piccolo.
An additional 3,000 IP addresses have logged on at least once since last Thursday.
The inquiry into the 2007 death of the schizophrenic man is streamed live and archived at www.hydeinquiry.ca. This is the first time such webcasting has been done in Nova Scotia other than a one-day appeal court test run in February.
“In a sense we’re really in a pilot project stage for this too, because there are a lot of issues that are coming up,” Piccolo said.
Because there are no precedents, much of the inquiry debate has involved the webcasting itself.
A government lawyer said yesterday he plans to argue some security footage shouldn’t be webcast for privacy reasons.
CBC lawyer David Coles also argued the webcast of security tapes wasn’t broadcast quality. He requested a DVD copy of the security footage to air on television and upload to the web.
Judge Anne Derrick will rule on that Monday.
