Violence against Women and the Role of Media

Press, the fourth estate of democracy, has to maintain a balance between good reporting and accountability. Journalists are expected to maintain a standard of neutrality, objectivity but not sans sensitivity. In an era of paid news, media sometimes become agents of propaganda. With electronic media entering the scene, our living rooms were flooded with 24 hours entertainment and news channels. Nothing escapes the gaze of media. While electronic media is a manifestation of the fact that we are living in the information society of Manuel Castell, there are some pertinent concerns a viewer needs to raise.

            With regard to news channels, the first concern must be whether print and electronic media is able to manage the required standards that are set for good journalism. How does media report on sensitive issues like sexual violence against women, child sexual abuse etc? Over a period of time the competition of TRP rates paved way for unnecessary sensitization of news. Line between real news and scripted dramatic serials blurred. People became mere stories. While print media tried to maintain the code of conduct, electronic media often stepped over the line.

             Markandey Katju, the Chairperson of Press Council of India, often talked of the kind of insensitivity that Indian Press indulged in from time to time. A number of incidents that made one rethink where to draw the line between journalistic ethics and sheer sensationalism are as follows. While covering the Arushi-Hemraj double murder case of 2008 which is progressively taking the hue of a case of honour killing, news channels showed lewd animated pictures of the 14 year old girl along with the other victim in indecent postures. This is not an isolated incident. When a tragic incident of a video doing rounds in India’s premier institution Jawaharlal Nehru University took place, media continued to be insensitive. Along with the students involved, media continued harassing the other students by constantly intruding their academic space. Fingers were also pointed at students coming from particular states of India. The same media was lukewarm towards the institution’s struggle for getting their democratic elections back.    

            Another shocking incident was a young girl being molested on a busy highway in Guwahati by a number of miscreants in June, 2012 and this was being shown through live telecast by a local private news channel. While a young girl was being pushed and pulled in every direction, the news channel was basking in the glory of being able to provide a live telecast. What happened to the journalist’s duty as a concerned human being to intervene and immediately inform the police? Are we pushing notions of a neutral, objective bystander too far? Live telecast of molestation seems like a precedent to live telecast of more serious crimes. Similar behaviour was witnessed during the December, 2012 gang rape case in Delhi where news channels as well as some newspapers were more obsessed with the identity of the victim and her relationship with her male companion as opposed to the crime.

           In another recent incident, when a girl was attacked by her class mate in JNU, while the entire country expressed shock and concern, a leading Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar was more caught up in discovering the nuances of the relationship between the girl and the boy. Nothing can justify such violence. Instead of initiating a debate on the need to rethink romantic relationships, the paper indulged in character assassination of the girl who was fighting for her life. Sensitised news on violence sell. Compelled by the demand of market, this newspaper seemed untouched by the ongoing debates of how movies like Ranjhnaa tend to justify the aggressive behaviour of a jilted lover. It was only after a complaint by some students made, the news paper took it down.

           Another shameful incident is the kind of reporting that is doing rounds on the recent case of gang rape in Mumbai. In case of criminal assault on women, media is expected to maintain a level of secrecy. This is to save survivors of such assault from further harassment. Most newspapers follow to these rules. In this case while some newspapers initially gave out details regarding the victim’s workplace, they immediately removed it. But a leading daily like Times of India send its reporter to the building where the victim lived to give an exclusive report on the reaction of her neighbours and friends. It also gave details about the way this heinous crime was perpetrated. Other papers like the Hindustan Times, Indian Express, The Hindu only gave out details given by the hospital. This is a gross violation of journalistic ethics.

           This recurring insensitivity on the part of media raises some pertinent concerns about whether news media is also commercialised and gendered. Even news items are dovetailed for a dominantly male audience. News business is rapidly driven by hard news. As such the journalistic code of conduct, media’s responsibility towards societies is becoming volatile. Entrusted with the crucial responsibility of keeping people well informed on the kind of atrocities happening around the country, the journalists of both print and electronic media need to be extra careful.

           Any talk of role of media cannot bypass a discussion on movies and TV serials which are an important source of entertainment. With increasing number of cases of violence against women, social scientists, psychologists tried to understand if there is any relationship between representation of women in media and increasing violence on them. While there may not be any direct causal relationship, people who are exposed to a particular degrading portrayal of women are found to be more acceptable of the violence meted out to them.

             Most movies and TV serials portray women in two ways- as meek, docile and vulnerable, in constant need of protection of a male or as cunning and calculative. Family and politics in home seems to be central to these women’s existence. Very few TV serials or movies take up issues that a working woman faces in her life. How we see a woman and her relationships on the TV screen becomes crucial in Indian society because we hear and know of love from these sources. In a conservative social set up, families do not give the space to engage on issues of relationship. If movies like Ranjhnaa romanticises stalking to such an extent that male aggression comes to be justified as true love, women are denied their agency even in such an intimate relationship. It is only when we question these deep rooted biases, women can deal with society on an equal footing as men.