Call for gender sensitivity in media reporting on women

Sr journalists emphasise better training to reporters in covering crimes against women, at Editors Meet organised by Population First.

Expressing serious concern over the failure on the part of media in being watchful of language and its tendency to use clichés, sexual innuendos and gender stereotypes in reporting or telecasting crimes like sexual assault against women, senior journalist and columnist Kalpana Sharma said on Thursday that most of the media houses were picking up crime-related incidents, playing them repeatedly with an eye on TRP ratings.

Delivering the keynote address at Editors Meet on gender sensitivity and discussion on role played by media after Nirbhaya’s incident, organised by Population First, she said enough training was not being provided to the people working in media on gender sensitivity and women’s rights. In the past, seniors used to guide reporters working under them but this method was no longer practised now. Ignorance on the part of reporters regarding rights of women was exposed during live coverage of such incidents, she said and urged media persons to stop invading a survivor or her family’s privacy in the name of interviews.

She said that it was nearly 12 months since the heinous crime in New Delhi shook the entire nation but still the media did not learn how to cover such incidents. Kalpana said media has been dramatising incidents of crimes committed against women. This was leading to a sense of fear with mothers who are worried over safety of their grown up girls.

Chairperson of the Women’s Commission Tripurana Venkataratnam laid emphasis on media house management and training on gender sensitivity issues. There is a discrimination in coverage of crimes against women, since such incidents take place more in slums and villages against Dalits and Adivasis, which most of the time goes without getting due importance, she lamented.

HMTV and The Hans India Editor-in-Chief K Ramachandra Murthy said that all media houses should take cue from Maa TV to set up in-house committees to counsel men and women staffers on gender sensitivity issues. Resident Editor of The Hindu, Nagesh Kumar observed that media in the past used to do regular follow up of major crime-related incidents until the guilty were convicted in courts. At present, speed and sensationalism have become the essence of reporting crime-related incidents, he said. Echoing the sentiments of previous speakers’, senior journalist C Vanaja said that comprehensive and good follow up stories of such incidents would create a positive impact. It is good to know that some media houses like Maa TV, NTV and Vanitha had set up internal complaints committees to deal with issues relating to sexual harassment at work place.

Writer and columnist C Mrunalini observed that news was being no longer shown as news, but it has become fictionalised news. She appealed to the media to focus on avenues or trauma care related content more, in order to help the sufferers.

Some channels after playing up the crime related incident offer a piece of advice towards the end. However, they should strive to make this end-point as the beginning and air the story, she observed.

Accepting that few media houses were going overboard in coverage of crime against women, Senior Journalist Shailesh Reddy asked the intellectuals as to why they have not complained about these excesses to News Broadcasters Association, the email id of which was being displayed in news scrolling of all channels.