A piece by India Today, about the Kolkata minor's rape by Army jawans sadly decided to focus on the minor's personal life choices.
On Wednesday, while covering the horrific case of the 14-year-old Kolkata minor who had been raped by two Indian Army jawans on a train to Amritsar, India Today forgot the basic ethics of journalism when they decided to share completely irrelevant details of the rape. They told the story of how the girl had run away from home and was going to meet her ‘Facebook lover’.
They tweeted with the headline: ‘Howrah Amristar Express rape case: Girl was on way to meet Facebook lover’, a tweet they deleted after facing outrage on Twitter (they also changed the headline of the article).
The contents inside the copy are equally vile: “When a lovestruck 14-year-old girl decided to run away from home to meet her boyfriend, she had no inkling of the horror she was in for. The girl, from Kolkata's Dum Dum locality, was raped several times by two Indian Army jawans on a train to Amritsar.
It all started with Facebook - initially by sending friend requests to each other, followed by messages and then late night chats. For the minor girl, that was perhaps enough to fall in love with a boy who actually hailed from Punjab's Ludhiana district.”
How does one equate a minor’s horrific rape with who she’s chatting on Facebook? Exactly what are we supposed to take from this – that one shouldn’t talk to people on Facebook? How do you call someone she hasn’t even met her ‘Facebook lover’?
It didn't start with Facebook.
(Read: How mainstream media propagates gender-based violence)
While it’s a journalist’s job to report facts, this simply focuses on the victim, rather than the criminals. A headline and copy like this seems to imply that she had it coming. This is the same as implying that Suzette Jordan deserved to be raped because she was out or Jyoti Singh was raped because she was out with her friend late in the night and got on the bus.
Japleen Pasricha, founder of Feminism in India told dna: “The instant effect would be that people will think it’s' the girl's fault. Why was she going to meet her boyfriend, why did she make a boyfriend online, why is she on Facebook, how could her mother allow this are some of the questions that people will ask instead of how could the two army jawans rape a 14-year old? Secondly, headline and representational image of news articles forms the way one consumes that particular article. This article in question is already stinking of victim-blaming.”
And lest we forget, we’re talking about a 14-year-old. Our focus should be on the Army jawans, not the victim. This is NOT her fault. The focus should be on the absconding criminals.
We as members of the media don’t realise just how much power we wield. We don't realise it, but a lot of people take whatever we say as gospel truth. It’s true a lot of the news we propagate is tinted with bias, but it’s our job to try to keep those biases to a minimum. And at the end of the day our job is report news, not propagate our biases to the readers. Yes, it's important to have an audience, but our job isn't to gather a bunch of experts and shout at each other. We're the Fourth Estate and we need to remember that people count on us to tell the truth.
There are various things we need to remember when we are reporting cases of sexual assault, the most important one being that there are absolutely no mitigating circumstances that will ever justify rape. In case media houses need help on how to report, here's a Feminism in India guideline on How to Implement Gender Ethical Journalism
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Protest against rape in Kolkata")
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}