TPB wants the trial broadcast

From Nyheter24.

Founders demand that the court choose another courtroom.

There is a risk that one of Sweden's largest political trials will be held in a room the size of a high school class room. The owners of file sharing site The Pirate Bay are announcing their demands in anticipation of the trial on February 16th: a new courtroom which holds at least 150 people and the possibility to broadcast the trial live.

This night, The Pirate Bay's press contact Peter Sunde leaked a mail from co-founder Fredrik Neij about the demands for the trial on his blog. In the email, which has also been sent to their lawyer Peter Althin, they want the room for the trial to be changed.

As it stands, the proceedings will be held in room 9 of Stockholm's district court where only 35-40 people will fit. Instead, the defendants want it to be moved to a larger one, with room for 20 seats for family and friends, as well as 80-100 seats for the press and the public.

In the mail, Neij writes:

"It's a threat to us and due process that they are going to limit the insight into the trial. 20 seats for the media, that only covers the established media, which is owned by our opponents."

Peter Sunde also wants reserved seats for bloggers, and that they are allowed to broadcast the trial live via Bambuser. On his blog, he writes:

"I also want us to put in a request to the court about broadcasting a live video stream via Bambuser for the whole duration of the trial. We want to show them how it's done. Playing with an open hand, everything should be transparent!"