Network of Women in Media stresses guidelines on reporting sexual crimes

Thiruvananthapuram: A group of women journalists representing Network of Women in Media, India, (NWMI) has submitted a representation to the government, asking it to bring out a comprehensive guideline on the reporting of sexual crimes. The context in which the women’s group approached the Chief Minister was an insensitive report on the sexual assault on an actor. The report had explicit details on the nature of the alleged crime, which according to the representation was “a brutal violation of the privacy of the survivor and thus the violation of article 21, right to life”.

NWMI’s Saritha Verma said that these are existing guidelines, and the plea was only to re-emphasize those. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that he would examine the plea and respond accordingly. The representation submitted to Mr Vijayan listed following guidelines pertaining to reporting such crimes – IPC 228A, which prescribes punishment to anyone who reveals the identity of a rape survivor; Code of Practice for Journalists issued by the Editors’ Guild of India, which asks utmost care should be taken so that the report itself does not become a punishment; News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) which urged media to not show details which could ‘retruamatise’ the survivors