NEW DELHI: Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury today emphasised that the electronic media should not show the face of child or women victims of molestation, rape or violence of any kind.
In a short chat with indiantelevision.com, the minister added that "bricking" or other tactics were pointless since people in the area always knew who the victims were and the identity was of no interest to those in other parts of the country.
She suggested that the media should find other ways of giving the news, adding that perhaps a reporter could give the news without showing any face or environment.
She also stressed that the electronic media should heed the guidelines about the method of questioning child victims pointed out in the report on "Study on Child Abuse: India 2007" prepared by her ministry. The report published in April last year had shown how children are generally questioned and made suggestions on how this should be done.
Earlier, addressing a session of the 8th Editors Conference on Social Sector Issues organised by the Press Information Bureau, the minister called upon the media to write editorials and articles on issues like crimes against children and women, female foeticide and related issues like nutritious diets.
Referring to a meeting she had held last week with principals and teachers in the aftermath of the incident in which a school student in Gurgaon killed a fellow student with his father’s gun, she said she intended to hold such workshops once every quarter in different parts of the country to find ways to curb the violent tendencies among children exposed to cinema, television and the Internet.
She would also be talking to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and the Central Board of Film Certification in this connection.
She said that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights would examine cases of the effect on children of television advertising, animation serials and other programmes, and films. She called upon the media to support her in this effort.
The minister also urged the media to devote the entire month of March to issues related to women, since the International Women’s Day falls on 8 March.
