Medias Dealing with
Women Problems
Mridu Kumari
I
t is not a new phenomenon: role played by media
in raising women centric problems in India and
other parts of the world has always been debated
in both glorious and inglorious terms. However, it is
different matter that load of public observation over
media’s role in dealing with feminist problem has
rather tilted more towards negative than positive side,
even though media especially print and electronic
news outlets have presented issues as they are. For
example, if India could see strong anti-rape law
envisaging provisions of increased sentence for rape
convicts, including death sentence, it was on account
of media’s sustained coverage of brutal gang rape of
23-year-old Nirbhya in a moving bus in South Delhi on
December 16. Electronic media devoted more than
14-15 hours of its airtime in covering ordeal of the
medical student who later succumbed to her injuries
in a hospital in Singapore.
should not be forgotten that media reflects what
happens in the society. If on account of patriarchal
nature of society or influence of Western culture or
weak criminal justice system women suffers, media
and non-else have come forward to raise the voice of
concern. In fact, news media-both print and electronic
present issues of larger public interests; it offers
platform to debate over burning issues and shapes
public opinion correspondingly.
The sense of outrage portrayed by the media was so
potent that the government was compelled to institute
Justice J S Verma committee to recommend
amendments to the criminal law so as to provide for
quicker trial and enhanced punishment for criminals
accused of committing sexual assault against
women. Though the government didn’t accept in
totality the recommendations of the three-member
committee, yet they served as necessary benchmark
for the law the government brought against crime like
rape, stalking, acid attacks etc. Indeed, if number of
violence against women is getting reported and
consequent actions are being taken by authorities,
news outlets have specific role in that. But critics say
they do so out of sensationalism and to catch viewers
eyeball in the profit-driven world of journalism. To
support such argument, they present a report which
suggests that sensational stories related to women
get between 52 to 63 per cent in newspapers in India
while stories related to women’s equality and
opportunity get less than nine per cent coverage.
There is no prevarication in that argument. Yet it
Perhaps, this truth can no better be seen than in the
case of honour killings perpetrated by Khap
Panchayats in North India and Katta Panchayats in
Tamil Nadu. Thanks to the continued reportage by
media and a Public Interest Litigation filed by Shakti
Vahini, an NGO, the Supreme Court in its verdict in
2011 not only declared Khap Panchayats illegal but
also asked for imposition of ban on them. “There is
nothing honourable in honour killing or other atrocities
and, in fact, it is nothing but a barbaric and shameful
murder,” the apex court said in its verdict and the
media disseminated it to its hilt.
Records of past two decades show that when most
of the democratic institutions have abdicated their
responsibility towards people and the nation, it is
media which has emerged as true watchman of the
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