The perils of being a woman scribe

There are exactly 11, 229 women journalists in the country according to the 2011 figures available with the registrar of newspapers for India. This figure does not include freelancers and women journalists associated with news channels. The aftermath of the horrific gang rape of a woman journalist in Mumbai has led to the debate of enhanced security for scribes. A police escort for each woman journalist- is it feasible to have so many cops on duty to escort women journalists?

Lata Jain

In a knee jerk reaction to the horrific gang rape of a woman photojournalist in Mumbai, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said that his government advocated women journalists, who have to visit secluded places or undertake difficult assignments at wee hours, to apply for escorts. What is journalism all about if the women journalists have to discuss their story with a cop? Where is the freedom of the press? Detention, threats and killings are just some of the forms of violence women journalists face because of the work they do, in a profession which is steeped in cultural and patriarchal norms.

Sexual violence, threats and attacks against female journalists are rarely talked about within journalistic circles. Many woman journalists from across the globe, who have been sexually abused, chose to remain silent due to cultural and professional stigmas, that could mean losing future assignments.“Safety of journalists from a human rights perspective has become an issue. There has been a thirty-three per cent increase in violence against women journalists since 2011”, says B V Mahalaksmi of Financial express. She believes that a mechanism should be designed where women journalists could immediate reach out for help when in trouble.

“Dialling 100 does not help and the cops ask delicate questions when you are in trouble. So the belief in that system is lost. I faced a lot of problems while on crime beat but I made my arrangements for safety. Above all, what is the guarantee that the cop who is escorting me will not leak out the story? When I was doing a story on Global Trust Bank, a mob attacked me but police stood helpless. So let the government come up with ideas which are feasible”, said Mahalaksmi.

Sowmya of Namaste Telangana questions, “Why are so many women journalists being attacked? Why is the government not going into its root cause? 66 years of independence and we are aliens in our own land. One attack on a women photo journalist cannot deter our spirits, we will fight back.”

Shyam Sunder, a retired police officer, feels the job of providing escorts to so many women journalists would be difficult. “Imagine the number of police personnel on media duty? How many cops can we mobilise for this onerous task?”, he questioned. “Rape has become another common four letter form of abuse but the depth and the stigma is not being understood by the law makers”, feels Vinita, a TV artist.

In the course of their work, female journalists face gender discrimination, obstructions to reporting, sexual harassment, censorship, threats, abduction or confinement and assaults. Verbal abuse in public, vilification and defamation of character, threat of physical assault and sexual harassment are commonly used to silence female journalists.

This Oscar Wilde quote best describes a woman: Every woman is a rebel, and usually in wild revolt against herself. My friends and colleagues say am soaked in 'oil'. But, I am still learning to count in barrels and smell the gas.