Durban - The sensational fraud and corruption trial of businessman Schabir Shaik resumes this morning after a visibly irritated Judge Hillary Squires yesterday indefinitely reserved judgment on an urgent application for the live broadcast of the case.

The application was brought by e.tv, Radio 702, Cape Talk and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

In opening the day's proceedings, Squires criticised e.tv for not linking the radio application with the television one heard three weeks ago.

That application delayed the trial by two days as Shaik and the state argued against live television coverage.

Squires also accused the SABC and Primedia stations of "sitting on their hands since February 2" when the trial date was announced.

E.tv and Primedia counsel Gilbert Marcus countered that the freeto-air broadcaster had waited for the television decision before making one for radio claiming that the two issues were sufficiently different to warrant separate applications for each.

"Rules are meant to be adhered to you have scraped over the first hurdle," Squires said.

As he did in the previous application, Marcus argued for Squires to strike a balance between witnesses' right to privacy and the public's right to information.

He said Squires had an overall discretion when deciding whether a witness should be subjected to a broadcast recording.

The four broadcasters also clarified their applications to guarantee any broadcast would be used only for news events, not radio talk shows.

This covered Squires' concern that talk shows "(would) have 20 amateur lawyers phoning in and judging (a witness's testimony)".

SABC counsel Brian Pincus argued that witnesses could not prevent their evidence from becoming part of the court record . Broadcast recording came under the same banner , he said.

With acknowledgements to Nicola Jenvey and the Business Day.