Oscar’s website undergoes makeover

Published Feb 22, 2013

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Johannesburg - Oscar Pistorius’s official website, oscarpistorius.com, has had a massive revamp in recent days.

This is thanks to a PR drive his team launched after he was accused of killing Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius’s family have decided to devote his official website to the latest news about developments as well as messages of support they are constantly receiving.

The website is also open to Pistorius’s fans from all over the world, who have been posting messages of support on the website and Bible verses, wishing him luck and praying for him.

 It also contains a copy of the affidavit that was read by his lawyer in court on Tuesday, explaining events that he said had led to the shooting of his girlfriend.

What is missing, however, are all the logos of his sponsors. A week ago, when one clicked on the logos of his sponsors, such as Nike, on his website, the page would open to an article. Now, those logos have been removed, after his sponsors dropped him.

The website has, among others, a picture gallery, media articles and messages of support.

Despite huge interest in the Pistorius story worldwide, there were only four listed under “media articles” on Thursday afternoon.

Two were from last year, informing his fans that the athlete would be appearing on Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN as well as on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

The other two articles are recent opinion pieces written by people blasting Pistorius’s critics and those “that have already judged him”.

One of the opinion pieces is from Duncan Reyburn, who claims he went to school with Pistorius and happens to work “at the university that Oscar used to go to, on a campus just one block away from the prison where he has been held”.

In his article, Reyburn, a lecturer at the University of Pretoria, makes that South Africa is to blame for Pistorius’s actions.

“I know that Oscar, whether he is guilty of murder or not, would have benefited from being the product of a culture that promotes thought over action. But, sadly, Oscar is the product of our culture. He is, whether we like it or not, a product of us - we’re reactive, terrified, wounded people.

“I have no judgment yet on Oscar’s guilt. Having been the victim a few years ago of a violent attack in my own home, I completely and fully understand the possibility that Oscar could have acted the way he did because he was afraid, because he wanted to protect his girlfriend,” Reyburn says in the article.

Matthew Syed, who writes another opinion piece that appears in The Times of London, blasts Pistorius’s critics, saying that what was happening was “quantity of cod psychology (fake psychology) that has been unleashed” since his arrest. There’s also a statement from Pistorius’s uncle Arnold on behalf of the family.

“We believe that this (the website) is an appropriate way to deal with the expressions of support we have received as well as keeping the media informed about any key developments in the case. We have every confidence as a family that when the world has heard the full evidence, this will prove to be a terrible and tragic accident which has changed many lives forever. We are praying for everyone touched by this tragedy.”

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The Star

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