The trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, which began last September, is coming to an end. The verdict is expected on June 29. Since the start, some civil parties have followed the hearings remotely, via a specially created web radio station, which broadcasts the proceedings with a slight delay. This unique device has been a great success.
Over 800 people have used the internet radio since the start of the trial, out of approximately 2,400 civil parties, the only ones to have access to it. During high points, such as the interrogations of Salah Abdeslam or the hearing of François Hollande, up to 450 people listened at the same time.
Sophie, survivor of the Bataclan, is one of the web radio users. This Parisian who lives in Paris, juggles between the face-to-face – she usually comes once a week to the Courthouse – and the distance. “For professional and personal reasons, I do not come to the trial every day. So when there is something that interests me, an expert or the interrogation of a defendant for example, I tune into the web radio. It’s very convenient because I can do it from home or in transport. I even happened to listen to the web radio on the terrace of a café because I had a moment and wanted to follow the trial in a pleasant setting, ”she explains to RFI.
The use of web radio is indeed very simple. A good internet connection, its authentication codes and you find yourself following the audience, alone in front of your screen. This is also why initially, lawyers and victims’ associations were a little reluctant. A psychological assistance number appears on the web radio’s homepage. But very few people have composed it. Sophie, she found with the web radio, a good tool which she keeps control. “I can have moments of emotion or anger. But it doesn’t matter at all. I manage very well on my own, ”says the young woman who did not want to come to the courthouse any longer. “I didn’t want this trial to take up too much space in my life. Finally, the web radio allows me to choose the moments, even very short ones, that I want to listen to and not to organize everything around my coming to the palace. It’s me who decides. »
► Read also : the minutes of the hearings of the trial of the November 2015 attacks
“ Addict » on the internet radio
If everything is going well for the majority of people who follow the trial via web radio, some are still unable to let go. Guillaume, survivor of the Bataclan, who lives in Brittany, let himself be completely taken in. “I was completely addicted,” admits the young man. “ Sometimes the internet radio didn’t work very well and it drove me crazy. I remember yelling or hitting things because it was cutting “. The dependency is such that one day, Guillaume forgets to pick up his two sons. ” I went home. I did what I had to do. I cooked. And then around 7 p.m., I realized that I was all alone. I had my headphones. I was at trial. I had forgotten, I no longer had my children in mind. “By diving into the trial with the web radio, a world opened up to him, explains Guillaume. He who expected nothing at all from the trial at the start, got carried away. ” I really ostriched for six years. And there, all of a sudden, I realized what I had sometimes missed a little. It also allowed me to understand why I was not well. I also have one of my children who is not doing very, very well. Listening to the web radio, I realized that there were plenty of things I hadn’t done, especially for him. Suddenly, everything that was said, I wanted to hear it. »
After having forgotten his children, Guillaume decides to stop everything, to wean himself from the trial. He is getting back to it a bit to follow the hearings of the accused, but only via twitter and the press. Today, he feels ready to listen to the web radio again until the verdict, but sparingly.
A web radio for the Nice trial
Despite some reported addictive behavior, the various actors in the trial of November 13, 2015 draw a positive conclusion from this first legal action. This device will therefore be renewed for the trial of the Nice attack which will begin in Paris on September 5th. However, a major improvement will be made to it: the web radio will be accessible from overseas and abroad, and a translation is planned. This was not possible for the November 13 trial, despite repeated requests to do so. In question, the risks of computer attacks but also the difficulty of sanctioning those who, outside France, would record the debates. Any capture is prohibited. The Ministry of Justice has obviously found a solution for the Nice trial. The attack of July 14, 2016on the Promenade des Anglais, killed 86 people of 19 different nationalities.