The arrest on November 7 of a television journalist in Mangalore for not preventing the violent attack by Hindu extremists on a group of boys and girls at a birthday party raises again the question of the role of media as a possible maker of violence. Does the presence of a TV camera or the promise of wide exposure in itself stimulate the performance of violent acts?
In this instance, activists of the Hindu Jagarana Vedike barged into a July 28 birthday celebration at a homestay resort in Mangalore, partly stripped and molested five girls and beat up seven boys in vigilante action to protect “Indian culture”. The attack was extensively captured on camera by a reporter, Naveen Soorinje of Kasturi TV, who had been alerted about the planned attack. The footage was repeatedly shown on many news channels. Soorinje has now been remanded in judicial custody till November 20. The police, criticised by fellow journalists for “shooting the messenger”, said they were executing a court warrant.
Journalists and liberal activists in Mangalore have called this an attack on the freedom of the media but the police maintain that since Soorinje had prior information about the attack, he should have made efforts to contact the police before it took place. The implication is that TV news professionals look for sensational footage to get more eyeballs in an increasingly competitive environment of 24/7 news channels, always looking to break news. And the vigilantes themselves look for coverage and even ‘sex up’ the action for the camera.
On July 9, Indian viewers watched horrifying footage of the obscene attack on a 17-year-old girl on her way home from another birthday party at a night club in Guwahati, Assam. The footage captured by a reporter of NewsLive TV showed about 30 men molesting the poor girl in a posh area of the city while bystanders watched the action. The Assam police said they have no record of a call for help from any media organisation during the time of the attack. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said, “I cannot approve the fact that the TV crew went on rolling their tapes for almost 45 minutes without making efforts to save the girl.” TV reporter Gaurav Jyoti Neog was arrested on charges of instigating obscene acts against a woman. The footage became a national television sensation and went viral on YouTube.
The question of the media’s role as observer or responsive agency was poignantly posed in the case of South African photojournalist Kevin Carter. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his 1993 photograph of a starving child in Sudan being watched by a vulture nearby, Carter was widely criticised for taking the picture and leaving without helping the girl, who was trying to get to a feeding centre. The accompanying New York Times story had said it was not known whether the girl made it to the centre. Carter said he left because he had finished his ‘job’. “The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene,” one newspaper said. Carter committed suicide in 1994.
In the Mangalore case, the morality in operation seems to be of a different nature. The chairperson of the State’s Commission for Women, C Manjula, an appointee of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, submitted a report finding fault with the young people at the birthday party, hinting that they were consuming drugs and involved in prostitution. But the police investigation clearly said there was no evidence of drug abuse at the birthday party. Liberal activists suggest that the police action against the TV journalist in the Mangalore instance is retaliation against the repeated exposes of Hindu extremist action in the district, which has traditionally been a BJP stronghold. In another much-televised attack on a pub in 2009 by activists of the Sri Rama Sene, Hindu activists were captured on camera molesting girls and beating up boys for drinking alcohol. A case was filed but not much came of it for the accused, Subhash Padil, who led the birthday party attack this July.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2012.
COMMENTS (8)
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Also media needs to be moral and watching such atrocities without doing anything to help just because your job is to record sensational footage and get trps is disgusting, inhumane and a subversion of any religious values. Lastly, even if they were doing something illegal like drugs, this does NOT make it okay for vigilantes to rape and abuse them. If they were doing something illegal, report them to the police. It's like saying the girl was raped even though she was wearing decent clothes. even if she wasnt dressed decently, this does not justify her rape.
@gp65, totally agree. when in pakistan, muslim extremists commit violence or atrocities they are not representing their religion, in fact i even disapprove of the word "extremist muslims" as such people are not just extremists, they are not even muslims. islam propagates peace and the many quotations which are conveniently cited by deluded people often stem ignorance (as there are often total lies) or misinterpretations. I am not a moderate muslim or a liberal pakistani. I am just a muslim and a pakistani. Similarly, such vigilantism in india needs to be condemned, these people are not hindu extremists. they are simply extremists.
You guys all missing the point of article, I think media should be held responsible and I believe ppl act out more in front of camera. Yesterday in a urdu daily there was picture of crying sister of shaheed SP who had reached the scene of bombing and was clearly distressed and camera caught her in awkward angle and newspaper published it. That is wrong, media really need to regulate itself, if they don't someone else would do which none of us all want.
@gp65:
They were doing something illegal in the recent home stay case. This home-stay place was located in a residential locality and had no licence as a home-stay place.
In the pub attack case the victims were entirely innocent.
Both cases show breakdown of law and order and culpability of the state government.
I feel that journalist should stick to their duty and should not be burdened with policing or even normal duties of citizen of informing on crime while it is still underway.
Binding journalist to this normal duty of citizen will damage power of the fourth estate.
All such vigilantism needs to be condemned. People's privacy in their own homes needs to be respected - as long as they were not doing anything illegal. Just because some obscure organization chooses to include the name 'Hindu' in their name, this does not make it a religious issue. I hope the trouble makers are punished by law.
Let me summarize the thrust of this op-ed. The State Commission for Women is headed by a political appointee of the state govt and hence is not to be trusted. Now the police find that the people at the party were not consuming drugs so they are right, and are not being influenced by the govt. Then suddenly the same police arrest the journalist, and suddenly they too are influenced by the govt. Leaving aside the distasteful activities of the Sri Ram Sene and other allied groups in Mangalore, this logically inconsistent piece smacks of extreme bias against the Karnataka BJP govt, which does not seem to have been involved at any point in the story. Pseudo-secularism at its best.