Blog: ​

Nirbhaya revisited, but not this way, please

Review:

India's Daughter neither vulgar nor offensive

Revoke ban on Nirbhaya film: Editors Guild

Leslee Udwin, director of the documentary 'India's Daughter', gestures during a press conference in New Delhi on March 3. (AFP Photo)

READ ALSO:

BBC documentary on Nirbhaya uploaded on YouTube

READ ALSO:

Delhi rape convict's remarks 'unspeakable' — UN on Nirbhaya documentary

The government’s strenuous efforts to keep the controversial documentary on Nirbhaya canned met with stern responses from the BBC, which went ahead and broadcast it ignoring legal notices, and the Editors’ Guild that called the ban “unwarranted” and wanted it revoked.The ban seemed futile with the documentary going viral and the government’s attempts at stuffing the genie back in the bottle failing. Lakhs viewed the documentary online, even after it was taken down by YouTube on Thursday and civil society questioned the government’s decision.The BBC, which has telecast the documentary in UK, openly confronted the Indian government, saying ‘India’s Daughter’ has a strong public interest in raising awareness of a global problem like rape and hence is “satisfied with the editorial standards of the film”. The film “is an important account of an event that galvanized Indian opinion to ensure such tragedies are not repeated”. The Union home ministry had sent legal notices, seeking a ban on its broadcast globally. BBC did not telecast it in India.The documentary by British film-maker Leslee Udwin shows interviews with one of the rapists, the girl’s parents and the rapists’ lawyers. On Friday, the Bar Council of India said it will discuss the course of action it can take over regressive comments by the defence lawyers.Udwin denied any breach of contract with authorities at Delhi’s Tihar Jail where she interviewed the jailed accused. Delhi had claimed the film-makers violated conditions of the permission by making commercial use of the prison shoot and not showing the unedited footage to the Tihar authorities. Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said: “All I can say is that whatever is required, will be done. If conditions have been violated, there will be appropriate action.”Although the Nirbhaya documentary was telecast only in UK, the link showed up on social media within no time. The link went viral on YouTube, receiving millions of hits by the time the government alerted the computer emergency response team (CERT-In). On Thursday, a spokesperson for YouTube, which took down the film, said that “while we believe that access to information is the foundation of a free society...we continue to remove content that is illegal or violates our community guidelines, once notified”.Delhi high court upholds ban on telecast of Nirbhaya documentaryThe documentary shows Mukesh Singh, one of the main accused in the Delhi gang rape in 2012, saying a “girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy”.Attempts at censorship by Delhi seemed to have backfired, as in a “Streisand effect”, the New York Times said, the more it sought to suppress the film, the more people wanted to see it. It is named after actor-singer Barbara Streisand’s failed attempts at suppressing a picture of her house.Adding to the government’s angst, Udwin flew out of India on Wednesday evening, just before BBC responded to the Centre’s communication sent on Wednesday afternoon seeking restraint of broadcast. That night, BBC said the documentary would be aired by BBC Four in UK at 10pm GMT, but it would not be available in India. Home ministry sources suspect that BBC’s declaration of its intent to bring forward the telecast only after Udwin’s departure could have been intentional.Speaking in London, Udwin called on PM Narendra Modi to “deal with the unceremonious silencing of the film”. “This is the greatest fight of our times and I wanted to applaud the reaction of the Indian people to the crime with this film. But that has been turned around by this ban, which is an attempt to muzzle free speech,” she said.The home ministry, apart from writing to BBC, had sent communications to the ministry of external affairs, requesting it to take up the issue with BBC; to the ministry of information & broadcasting, asking it to enforce the restraining order; and the ministry of information technology, seeking blocking of any content relating to the documentary on social media.But pulling videos down is a bit like battling a many-headed hydra, for more kept cropping up. There were over 10 videos of the film posted on Youtube on Friday. Two of the links still worked. The videos had a total of around 11,000 views. Another film sharing site, Daily Motion, had 11 videos with a total of 36,853 views, while Vimeo had 3 videos with 5,848 views.Many people on social media said they had downloaded the film and were willing to show it to anyone who could not access it online. Environmentalist Sumaira Abdulali, who managed to download the film before it was blocked online, says it is absurd the film can viewed across the world but is blocked in India. “How can you isolate India from the rest of the world, unless we turn India into China?” she asks.While the government harped on conditions of filming the documentary being allegedly violated, a group of feminist activists—including Kavita Krishnan and Indira Jaisingh — also called for a ban on the film, not for its content, but because the case is still in appeal in the courts and the film’s screening could weaken the case.