The four targetted Nalsar Law students have launched an online campaign against regional news channels, for filming them without permission and accusing them of being ‘immoral’It was a nightmarish experience that they will never forget. But what the four girls, who were harassed on the streets outside a city pub on Thursday, don’t want people to forget is that everyone has a right to stand up against the wrong and speak up. And this is exactly what they, along with their friends, are doing.The girls from Nalsar University of Law were attending a farewell party thrown by their juniors at a pub in Jubilee Hills on that night. Shruthi Chandrasekaran, one of them, tells us, “Around 11 pm, we (four girls and a guy) were waiting for our cab, when we saw a man on the road filming us. I confronted him and my friend snatched away his phone, only to realise it wasn’t the phone he was using to film us. Soon, a mob gathered and a crew of a regional media channel who were present there, started filming us, without our permission. This footage was aired by the channel tagging us as “drunk”, “hot”, “immoral” and “naughty” and running a bulletin on how we are immoral and are promoting Western culture.” The video went viral and soon other regional channels used the same footage to run similar features.The girls were horrified, to say the least, to see the misleading footage featuring them splashed on air and online. But taking a lesson from their training in law, Shruthi, Prachi Arya, Adwitiya Das and Megha (who were featured in the footage), along with friends, decided to fight back. The girls launched a blog telling their story and a online campaign, which calls for signatures from as many people as possible to sue the channels that “fabricated facts” and “sensationalised” an episode for TRPS.“We are running two petitions. The smaller petition is an open letter to the media houses who made this ‘sensational story’ out of nothing. We started this petition right after the incident, collected more than 1,000 signatures and sent it to Justice Katju, chairman Press Council of India (PCI). We also have a bigger petition on voyeuristic reporting that will be sent to Justice Verma, Newscasting Broadcasting Authority, PCI, DK Aruna, state minister for Information, Broadcasting and PR as well as the Chief Justice of AP,” adds Adwitiya Das.The girls say they will fight till they get justice. “We are not going to let this go. Our voices have to be heard. We can’t let this happen again and again to women. Why are we targeted always and for no reason at all?” avers Shruthi. The petition is already creating a huge buzz online and the girls are urging everyone to share the message, flag the misleading videos online and get them taken off. “We already have around 500 signatures for the bigger petition against voyeuristic journalism. We are looking at crossing 1,000 so that a PIL (public interest litigation) can be filed against the media channels that aired fabricated footage, portraying us in the wrong. If the PIL does not work out, we will file a writ ourselves. Actually, there are so many cases we can file against them — defamation, criminal act, illegal business, fabricating facts – we study law and we know the rules. They have to remove all our videos and admit that they were wrong. Revoking their licenses may seem difficult, but that’s not going to stop us from demanding it,” Shruthi adds.What’s even more disturbing , they say, is that the local channels “not only tried to garner TRPs, but also acted as moral police questioning what we are wearing!” Nutan Mallepally, one of the juniors who threw the farewell bash, says, “What Hyderabad culture are they talking about? And who are they to dictate what girls should be wearing? It’s interesting to note that there was a guy too with the group at the time of the incident, but the media was not interested in filming him. They were focussing only on the girls so that they could cook up this story. We’ve been trying to get in touch with this crew who filmed the girls and used the footage with tickers like ‘naughty, drunk girls’, etc.”Shruthi, who has spent five years in the city, says it was traumatic for her when her parents, who stay in Chennai, learned about the incident. “I told them about the incident myself and told them they can see the videos if they want. My family is conservative, but they have always stood by me,” she says, adding, “When I called up a regional channel that was airing this footage, the response I got was — ‘What is the need for us to hear your story. You were in the wrong, and we were right in filming you’. I’m not even shocked anymore. To all those who talk about culture and what women should wear and do, I would like to ask, ‘How should I react when a stranger films me?’ Do they have an answer?”