Naming victims: Will this case against TV 9 act as a deterrent for media?

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The News Minute Editorial| December 9, 2014| 6.00 pm IST According to the Bengaluru police, Tv 9 Kannada director Mahendra Mishra is absconding. Others working in the channel have deposed before the police, in perhaps the first case in the state against a media organization under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO). A case has been filed against the channel at the DG Halli police station under Section 23 (2) of the Posco Act for naming a minor victim, school and revealing many other details of victim and school. TV 9 Kannada is surely not the only media house that has named a minor victim, and will not be the last one. In July, when a six year old child was raped in a school in Bengaluru, the city was left shell shocked. Soon, the anger was on the school and its management. The school became the focal point of the debate on TV, print and social media. Everyone said name and shame the school. In this case, there was at least some genuine reason for the anger against the school, as they had been complicit in keeping the crime under wraps. Then a string of child sexual abuse cases followed. Each time, the trend persisted. Name the school, close it down. In the case of the young girl who mysteriously died in Shimoga, online activists kept naming her, in the garb of getting justice for her. The trend was disturbing for two reasons. One- a person sitting in Delhi or Mumbai or Dubai wanting to name and shame the school was disjointed from the reality that parents whose child were studying in the ‘accused’ school had to face on a daily basis. Parents were concerned as their children were asked, “Oh, you go to the school where rape happened?” or “That school should close down.” Then there is the danger of the victim getting identified, and of further trauma. One such family whose child was a rape survivor in a Bengaluru school has relocated from the city, after everyone around them identified the child. It was not just on social media, even mainstream media named schools, locality and in some cases, details of the victim. This in clear violation of Section 23(2) of the POCSO Act that says, “No reports in any media shall disclose, the identity of a child including his name, address, photograph, family details, school, neighbourhood or any other particulars which may lead to disclosure of identity of the child.” It was in one of the cases reported a month ago that TV 9 seems to have forgotten all restraints, allegedly naming the child and school. With the Bengaluru police deciding to pursue the case, this will perhaps serve as a deterrent in the future.

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