Media law and ethics: Have a heart!

Every other day some or the other crime reporter says,

“Aray, yahan rape hua hai.” or,

“Ek aurat ka Saddar mein murder hua hai, story chahiye?”

We don’t even stop and think twice before asking,

“Nahi, is mein naya kya hai? Mazay ka murder tha?Koi weird detail pata chali?”

The more gruesome details he can get his hands on, the better. I know it sounds horrible but it spices up the story. There are lot many cases which can be brought in the lime light. For example, Aarushi Murder case, Patel Para, Jessica Case. There was a case a couple of months ago of the alleged Patel Para serial killer. A man was killing women from a lower middle class background and leaving their chopped up bodies around the city – usually in a three part series.

There were three things which made the police suspect it was the same man – the words ‘phone call’, and ‘Patel Para’. The bodies were cut in a similar way and left in the same area. The Soldier Bazaar police or people from the neighbourhood usually just found the pieces randomly in the trash or under a tree.

When normally such cases come our senior crime reporter went to the morgue to see the bodies, she came back with details like how the flesh was sliced from the bone or how one woman’s breasts were delicately cut and left on a board for an examination. Obviously, these details didn’t make it to the page. The story was toned down quite a bit and I was disappointed. I mean these people need to learn a lot. They just need their story hook or by crook, and are not at all concerned about the victim or their family. I mean how ridiculous it could be?

However, after attending majority workshops related to women, I felt like I was either an insensitive jerk or there was no way to report on such issues. Because in this field people are not only heartless but also mean, just run behind covering the story and getting TRP’s for their channel.

A rape case or murder case is very clinically reported. Because in such cases we have all the basic details like the name, place, time, and then what the police or family have to say.

In a woman’s case, the police will immediately jump to the conclusion that the woman had a ‘loose character’.

They will drag her name through dirt and use derogatory terms which will indirectly comment on her lifestyle – but this is just in English papers, in other papers it is even worse.

I suppose the media was unprepared to deal with these stories. When any rape victim is interviewed by The News channel, she’s asked to go into details about the rape. Since their rape cases became political, these women received a different sort of coverage. In the pro-government side of the print media, it was defamatory; in the relatively liberal sector, they tried to tone it down but I guess it must have been difficult.

If a reporter files a rape story today, we are told to remove the name of the woman or girl to make sure her identity is protected in every possible way. Maybe it’s to avoid the media circus that their lives could become – looking at how such cases are covered in the media, print or electronic.

Maybe we should just not write about it till we’re sure we won’t judge or break down and cry. I just hope this same situation doesn’t arises with the upcoming future journalist.