In the last few days, the Indian media was engaged in a heated debate about a documentary named ‘India’s Daughter’ which talks about the Nirbhaya rape case of 2012.
‘India’s Daughter’ is a documentary made by Leslee Udwin on the brutal and horrific rape of 23-year-old physiotherapy student in December 2012 which shook India and the subsequent chain of events related to the case which put our country under the microscope at a global level.
‘India’s Daughter’ includes interviews with one of the men convicted of the crime, who is now in prison in Delhi and waiting for the supreme court to hear his appeal against the death sentence.
While the media in India and abroad chose to discuss, debate and dissect the making of the documentary; we at NewsMobile chose not to be a part of this hunger for TRP’s and sensationalism.
We understand being journalists it is our duty to tell the news as it happens, but on this subject we chose to draw the line and not cover it.
Before we explain why we chose to remain away from the subject, we would like to ask you all a simple question: Is it worth glorifying one man’s unpardonable act at the cost of a family’s, a gender’s, a society’s pain?
Firstly, if one argues on plain logic, the Indian constitution under the freedom of expression and speech gives every citizen of India the right to express her/his thoughts freely except when it compromises the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency and morality or is in contempt of court, leads to defamation, incites people to commit offences and/or compromises the sovereignty and integrity of India.
The interview of the rapist violates the basic order of decency and morality of the society and has pushed the envelope too far and a reputed channel like BBC has also fallen prey to this journalism of sensationalism.
The rapist had said, “When being raped, she shouldn’t fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they’d have dropped her off after ‘doing her’, and only hit the boy.†Â
In journalism, we have often argued that there is a very thin line between being a part of a situation and becoming involved and taking an objective view of the situation.
But, most of all, one of the core objectives of being a journalist is to report news without taking a stand on the issue and upholding the integrity of the constitution while not violating the media’s freedom of expression.
So even though Nirbhaya’s rapist has the freedom to express himself, we do not agree with him being provided a podium to glorify his act. What is the message this is sending to many others who may commit an act like this, that be a rapist and get featured by BBC?
Secondly, let us talk about statistics. On an average, 93 women are raped in India daily which means a woman is raped every 15 minutes.
Bear in mind, that off all the rapes that happen in India, only 46% are reported, which means that in 2014 when 33,945 cases of rape were reported, 73,794 women were actually raped across the country.
If this number is used as a figure of computation, on an average 1 woman is raped in India every 7.5 minutes.
Is the plight of any of these women any less than Nirbhaya? Is one girl’s pain more than the others? Are the others not going to get any voice?
What has happened has hurt people not just in India but all across the globe. Violation of any person’s privacy, woman or man and taking advantage of their inability to fight back due to lack of strength is not a show of power but an act of cowardice. We at NewsMobile believe that everyone deserves to air their views but they do not have the right to be treated exceptionally.
What has happened is not just demeaning to Nirbhaya but also all the women in the country and across the globe. And what Nirbhaya’s rapist said is not worth our attention, let alone worth the attention of the women who have undergone a similar or worse trauma.
We live in a fragmented democracy where we have to focus on issues which are far more important than the point of view of one rapist who has lost all sense of conscience.
Rather than airing his views, we at NewsMobile continue to work tirelessly to air the views of the thousands of women, men and children who undergo trauma similar or worse than what Nirbhaya went through.
We may not be the best judge of someone’s pain but we are a part of the same country and the least we can do is to cut through the noise and the sensationalism and put forth issues that really matter.
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