Hello everyone!
Today I will share an example of journalism (Maharashtra, India) where we say a total lack of understanding of the impact a news item can have.
The attached photo is from 29th December article of Lokmat (which is a Marathi news paper)
Roughly, this is about a band of goons who wanted people to entitle their leader as “Bhai” (a term on the same lines as Big brother, or Don) and so they went on to destroying ATM’s and Vehicles and also entered civilian homes and hit a couple of people.
Now this might seem a normal news, with a bit of humor in it somewhere, but the real issue is with the details revealed in this.
About the accused, we get to know :
- Names
- Ages
- What was the strength of the gang (and that only half of them were arrested for a short term obviously)
- The general 10km radius of the place where the criminals live.
And now the sad part
About the person who filed the report to the police, i.e. the Victim the following was mentioned : - The full name, his age
- Exact address.
- The occupation – he is a vegetable hawker on a hand-cart
- The Tree besides under which he conducts his selling.
- He has a daughter who tried to stop the goons but was manhandled by them
With half of the “Bhai’s” supporters still loose, and the “Bhai” himself soon to be released, is this the type of information that should be made public?
This is not the first time such things have happened. In most cases usually the media gets a hold of all the information of the victim but very less about the accused. That doesn’t mean they have to fill up the words by showing every detail of the victim who lodged a complaint first.
This discourages people to approach the police as they fear that their identity will be endangered. I have seen a first hand case where the police came over to arrest the accused, and briefed him that they have to arrest him as so-and-so person had shot a video of his crime (which was harassment). I saw the look on the face of the person being arrested, it said one thing : let me get out , then I will take care of this …”
This is yet another example of how there is no witness protection unit in India. With every focus and energy, being channeled into solving crimes and empowering law enforcement – with a great deal of success by the way, I think such issues of witness protection should be more common practice in each and every reported crime.
Please let me know your thoughts on the same, or any way to improve my content.
Thank you for your time, enjoy.