It is criminal to see so many crimes in the headlines, but it’s good to see the media highlight these offences: It exerts pressure on the authorities to pursue justice for the victims and also exposes the offenders — murder might be easy but you don’t always get away with it.
In the last week, crime news has flooded the daily newspapers and television news channels. Crime is always good news for the news media — everyone loves a good crime story. However, even by normal standards, the last two weeks have seen a lot of crime stories in the news — especially against women.
Think Radhika Yadav killed by her father, Sneha Debnath who died by apparent suicide, and the young student in Balasore, Odisha, who passed away after self-immolation.
There was also a model and social influencer, San Rachel, who, too, reportedly died by suicide, and the ongoing struggle to stop the execution of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya in Yemen.
The fate of each of these women has been treated as a major incident in the news — does such coverage help expose crimes and criminals or do we simply enjoy the gory details?
‘In-depth’ coverage
The murder of Radhika Yadav by her father at their Gurgaon home on 10 July has been making news for a full week — with a microscopic lens on the father’s possible reasons for the killing. “How could a father kill his own daughter? Times have changed…’’ read a headline in The Indian Express (15 July).
Usually sober, The Hindu went with this rather lurid headline for its story: “When a ‘doting father’ became his daughter’s murderer’’ (14 July).
It got to the point where a week later Moneycontrol reported “a disturbing wave of online trolling….’’ which alleged a “love jihad” angle to the crime. Really?
Of course, television news can be trusted to be sensational and it didn’t disappoint: look at this in Times Now.
Another subject of intense scrutiny is Chhangur Baba and his reported conversion racket in Uttar Pradesh. His arrest had the Hindi news channels in a tizzy of excitement — as noted in last week’s column.
This week, in part II of the saga, women who claimed they had been forcibly converted to Islam by the self-styled guru spoke at a press conference about the episodes — they made it to the English news channels and the print media as well.
Chhangur Baba’s life and times in Balrampur became the subject of many in-depth newspaper articles, which traced him back to his humble beginnings as a seller of trinkets.
On television, we saw the baba claim his innocence: “I am not guilty, I don’t know anything,” he said (News18 India). The channel did a story on “Chhangur’s Chocolate Army” — handsome young Muslim men who charm Hindu girls into conversion.
Also read: Hindi TV news channels’ favourite villain the Muslim is back—Mitthoo Mian to Muharram
More details
The death of the Odisha college student after self-immolation was on the front pages of leading English newspapers on Wednesday morning: “Grief, protests as Odisha student who immolated self over harassment dies” (The Times of India).
Hindustan Times packed in as much information as possible into its headline: “Odisha student who set herself afire in college dies of injuries”.
Television news, of course, was far more descriptive — “Balasore’s beti succumbs to her injuries,” said Times Now; “Balasore sexual harassment victim dies of self-immolation” was the lead in Mirror Now; “Balasore tragedy, set herself on fire, accused assistant professor and principal arrested,” said News9; “No father should suffer my fate – my daughter was killed,’’ was the CNN–News18 headline on Wednesday.
Video grabs of the self-immolation were repeatedly shown on the news, and by Wednesday, a video emerged of the principal, the accused teacher, and the victim in conversation. (CNN-News18).
News channels gave details of the victim’s complaints against the teacher and the inaction that followed. Then they went live with coverage of political protests over the student’s death by the BJD and Congress.
To get a clearer picture of the sequence of events, read The Times of India (“Odisha student arrived in hosp 4.5 hrs after incident…’’) and The Indian Express accounts (“Odisha student who set self on fire over sexual harassment cremated’’): both note that the student complained to the college authorities and to the police although TOI in an accompanying piece — “No case registered as she did not complain in writing: Cops’’ — claimed that no written FIR was submitted by the victim.
Also read: India’s news channels turned Shefali Jariwala’s death into spectacle and speculation
‘Concerned channels’
The fate of Nimisha Priya, the Indian nurse in Yemen accused of killing her business partner, was a big TV news story and then the newspapers picked it up too.
It was on page 1: “Execution put off, reprieve for Indian nurse in Yemen,” wrote The Hindu in its lead. Along with The Indian Express, it described the efforts being made to save the nurse by the Indian government and intermediaries.
News channels were equally concerned for her: throughout Monday and Tuesday, they flashed stories of “blood money” being her only salvation. NDTV India decided to tell us how she had allegedly killed her business partner: With an injection overdose.
Another very sad story in the news was the reported death by suicide of a Delhi college student, Sneha Debnath. Police claim she jumped from the Signature Bridge in Delhi. NDTV 24×7 investigated the bridge and found that not even one of the 60-odd CCTV cameras on the bridge were working — so there is no footage of Sneha, at all. Republic TV hinted that the student was “under pressure”, but didn’t explain more.
Lastly, San Rachel, the model: channels concluded that she died by consuming pills because she was depressed, specifically due to “colour bias”. “It is very clear the woman was battling a colour bias,’’ said the India Today anchor without explaining how.
“San Rachel challenged Fair Skin Obsession,” wrote News9 about the model’s efforts to defy the fair skin preference.
However, the channels also identified financial debts as a cause: Whatever be the reasons, news channels were flooded with photographs of the gorgeous San Rachel — like they were in the middle of a photoshoot.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)