The press room
The press room designed for the trial has 16 sets of desks in two rows. There are 12 seats at each desk, 132 of them altogether, and 55 computers and two printers have been installed. On the wall are two giant screens that will transmit sound and images from the courtroom. One screen, divided into four sections, will simultaneously show images from all four cameras covering the trial, providing an overall picture of what is happening in the courtroom. The second giant screen will show images from one camera at a time, alternating from the bench to the accused, the counsel and the audience. Yesterday morning, shortly before the trial began, representatives of the journalists union, led by its president, Panos Sobolos, visited the press room for a briefing about the conditions under which the journalists are working. The lack of telephones is the main problem. Mobile phones are jammed inside the courtroom, and there are no landline phones, but there are some telephones in the attorneys’ room. Each radio and television station has been allocated one telephone, and a few card phones have been installed which journalists are entitled to use. There is no cafeteria, and the only source of refreshments is a coin-operated vending machine offering water and soft drinks. The water ran out two hours after the trial began, but there have been promises to install more machines. Sound quality was poor yesterday, and the accused, who spoke without microphones, could scarcely be heard. The press room proved popular with the cartoonists, who soon realized they could only see the backs of the accused in the courtroom. They promptly took up positions beneath a screen on which the faces could be seen.
