The technology staff had to push hard to get all the equipment needed for the first courtroom to be wired. For each piece of technology, they had to establish how it would or could improve the functioning of the court. When planning the courtroom's video capability, for example, IT pushed for digital 8 cameras and at first met with some resistance: "Why do you need such an expensive video camera in here—I've got a great one at home that cost only a thousand dollars," a judge (who had to approve the expenditure) said. Slowly the reasoning for the need for high-quality equipment became clear to even the most recalcitrant technophobes. (For example, the digital video recorder was needed to transfer evidence that might come in the form of low-quality home video to digital tape to stabilize it for copying and storing; a Boss VT-1 Voice Transformer could be used to alter the voices of witnesses to protect their anonymity.)

The courtroom work is the most enjoyable part of the IS staff's job, says Falces. "It's like television and IT combined." Indeed, a videotape of the proceedings is in constant production—played live on gallery monitors and aired with a half-hour delay for broadcast pickup or for compulsive cable TV court-watchers. (The half-hour delay allows for redactions to protect witnesses.) Before any cases were heard, judges had to decide whether the courtroom would even allow cameras. In some countries in which judges, lawyers or witnesses live it is not legal. In the Netherlands, where the court is located, it is not legal. But the judges decided that the overriding importance of making the world aware of the trials justified the presence of cameras. They set guidelines. The video director, who requested anonymity for this article, says he will not focus on a crying or traumatized witness beyond the second it takes to record that emotion and communicate what is happening in the courtroom. Likewise, although the camera turns to the accused occasionally, it does not linger. Like much else at the Tribunal, the production must walk a fine line of legal functionality and public interest.

A Qualified Success
"With the exception of the reason for why we were created, we are a success story," says Public Information Chief Chartier. A poster of sunny Paris on one wall of his office balances a sequence of black-and-white photos depicting a street battle on the opposite side. "Of course we'd all rather be elsewhere, rather there was no need for it, rather people weren't murdered, raped and tortured. But since we have to be here, we are glad to have the best people we can, glad to be doing it," he says.