INDIAN MEDIA'S EXCESSIVE USE OF IMAGES OF TRIBAL GIRL STRIPPED NAKED IN VIOLENT DEMONSTRATION
December 12th 2007 10:07
Several Indian media outlets have been severely criticised for the excessive use of photos and footage of a tribal girl stripped naked during a violent demonstration in Guwahati, the largest city of Assam state, on November 24.
Questions have been asked whether some coverage of the naked girl was merely salacious as opposed to newsworthy, and incident has become an issue for India’s traditionally free press.
Asia Sentinel said the incident began when about 1,000 indigenous Adivasi people, equipped with traditional bows and arrows, marched to the State Secretariat in Guwahati to demand their inclusion in India’s Scheduled Tribe list.
The march became violent and a high school student Adivasi girl was stripped naked and forced to run from the crowd until residents sheltered her – but not before her naked image was recorded by the media and mobile-telephone cameras.
Some Indian media outlets heavily featured pictures of the naked, running girl. The English-language Telegraph of Kolkata (Calcutta) published her picture on its front page on November 27, three days after the incident.
The Assam Tribune, the oldest English-language daily in the region, editorialised, “When a section of the media continues to come up with the visual of the naked Adivasi girl even days after the incident, it is evident that their purpose is simply to sensationalise and blow things out of proportion.
“It is in such times that the responsibility and the credibility of the media are put to test. A responsible media should act to defuse tension and not to arouse passions further.”
Asia Sentinel said two powerful regional student bodies, the All Assam Students’ Union and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad, also criticised the media, alleging that they repeatedly depicted the image of the Adivasi girl in an obscene way while neglecting to report that she had been rescued by a local youth who gave her shelter.
Shantikam Hazarika, an academic from Guwahati, said two television channels had replayed the incident for a full day, including visuals of the running girl.
“Those channels were cooking up the story, sitting in their studios and playing on the visuals of Guwahati violence. As a Guwahatian I am more angry at the media than ashamed of what has happened that day,” he said.
- From MediaBlab by Peter Olszewski via Factiva
Questions have been asked whether some coverage of the naked girl was merely salacious as opposed to newsworthy, and incident has become an issue for India’s traditionally free press.
Asia Sentinel said the incident began when about 1,000 indigenous Adivasi people, equipped with traditional bows and arrows, marched to the State Secretariat in Guwahati to demand their inclusion in India’s Scheduled Tribe list.
Some Indian media outlets heavily featured pictures of the naked, running girl. The English-language Telegraph of Kolkata (Calcutta) published her picture on its front page on November 27, three days after the incident.
The Assam Tribune, the oldest English-language daily in the region, editorialised, “When a section of the media continues to come up with the visual of the naked Adivasi girl even days after the incident, it is evident that their purpose is simply to sensationalise and blow things out of proportion.
“It is in such times that the responsibility and the credibility of the media are put to test. A responsible media should act to defuse tension and not to arouse passions further.”
Asia Sentinel said two powerful regional student bodies, the All Assam Students’ Union and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad, also criticised the media, alleging that they repeatedly depicted the image of the Adivasi girl in an obscene way while neglecting to report that she had been rescued by a local youth who gave her shelter.
“Those channels were cooking up the story, sitting in their studios and playing on the visuals of Guwahati violence. As a Guwahatian I am more angry at the media than ashamed of what has happened that day,” he said.
- From MediaBlab by Peter Olszewski via Factiva
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