WUNRN
PAKISTAN - RAPE - MEDIA COVERAGE
OFTEN SENSATIONALIZED,
POLITIZED, INSENSITIVE - FURTHER
VIOLATES VICTIMS
By Sehrish Wasif - April 5, 2011
Senior journalists and women rights activists chided the media for reporting rape cases like any ordinary crime, at the launching ceremony of a report on the media’s role in sex crimes.
Tasneem Ahmar, director of Uks, Dr Salman Tariq, gender advisor at United
Nations, Huma Khawar, senior journalist, Quatrina Hosain, director of current
affairs at Express News and Tahira Abdullah, a well known rights activist, were
speaking on Monday at the launching ceremony of a report titled ‘How rape
is covered by the media in Pakistan’. The report has been compiled by Uks
Research Centre,
The document attempts to view how women of
Painting a rather bleak picture, the report further states that women are not safe anywhere, including their homes, the streets, their workplaces and even in spaces which have been sworn to offer them protection.”In a patriarchal, male-dominated society like Pakistan, where women are treated as a man’s property, rape has become a form of not just violence against women but also revenge against men,” claims the report.
Speaking on the occasion, Ahmar said cases of rape receive the most sensationalised coverage in the country, where the media often forgets that an ethical code exists and becomes totally blind to any ethical guidelines. In such reports, she said, the spot-light is on the victim while the culprit/s is almost always completely ignored. This gives the impression that the victim herself bears responsibility for the entire episode.
“Such reports create a sense of fear among parents and force them to forbid their daughters from going out, even to school,” she said, adding that, “The effort has been made not to point fingers at the media, or alienate it, but is an attempt to make it a powerful ally in the struggle to ensure zero tolerance against gender-based violence in our society.”
Hosain was of the opinion that rape cases are “politicized” when they are expounded by the country’s media. She asked why the names and other details of rape victims are almost always highlighted in the media and instead of the profiles of the accused.
“Rape is not a crime of sex but a crime of violence, power and abuse,” she said.
Khawar suggested that reporters should be trained for handling such cases and taught appropriate terms. Commenting on notions of honour and their link with violence against women, Abdullah said that the power of feudal lords or tribal chieftains lies in the bodies of “their” females.