So all that filth and degradation of women in Bollywood is okay but a documentary addressing a real issue gets banned?
India bans TV stations from showing interview with man who raped student | World news | The Guardian
Indian authorities have ordered television stations not to broadcast a documentary about a gang-rape on a Delhi bus in which one of the attackers blames the victim and says she could have avoided being killed if she had not fought back.
The order came after many in the country reacted with shock after national television channels broadcast some scenes from the British documentary featuring an interview with one of the men involved in the brutal gang-rape of a physiotherapy student.
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Mukesh Singh, one of four men to be convicted of the rape of 23-year-old Jyoti Singh in December 2012, is incarcerated in Delhi’s Tihar jail as he waits for the supreme court to hear the men’s appeals against their death sentences.
In a brutal assault that prompted street protests and calls for India to confront its attitude towards rape, Jyoti Singh was attacked on a bus in Delhi while returning home with a male friend after seeing the film Life of Pi. She died in hospital later.
But, in scenes broadcast in advance of the premiere of the documentary, India’s Daughter, Mukesh Singh showed little remorse and suggested his victim would not have been killed if she had not fought back against her attackers.
He said: “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy … A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night … Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes.”
India’s home minister, Rajnath Singh, said on Wednesday the film would not be aired in India and accused its makers of violating “permission conditions” by not showing the complete unedited footage to jail officials.
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“It was noticed the documentary film depicts the comments of the convict which are highly derogatory and are an affront to the dignity of women,” Singh told lawmakers in parliament.
“How was permission given to interview a rapist? It is shocking. I will get this investigated.”
Independent British filmmaker Leslee Udwin shot India’s Daughter over two years. The documentary was due to be simultaneously broadcast on Sunday, International Women’s Day, by BBC4 and channels in seven other countries, including India’s NDTV.
Late on Tuesday, the home minister directed Delhi police to obtain a court order prohibiting the film’s release. Police said the ban was imposed as Mukesh’s comments could create an atmosphere of “fear and tension” that may fuel public anger.
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Udwin has said she had received written permission from both the home ministry and the prison authorities. She interviewed Singh for 16 hours over three days. The edited footage of the interview was later shown to the authorities.
In a statement in Wednesday she said she was “deeply saddened” by attempts to silence the film.
“This is a documentary I left my young children and the comfort of my home for, to spend two years dedicated to a crucial cause in the public interest of women, not just in India but worldwide,” she said.
“India is a democracy with civilised laws, but sadly this flouting of a basic right to freedom of speech … is flying in the face of civilised values.”
“I tried to know what Mukesh thinks about women and what led him to do this,” she said. “See the film: there is no sensationalism. It isn’t about giving a platform to the rapists,” Udwin said.
“India should be embracing this film – not blocking it with a knee jerk hysteria without even seeing it. This was an opportunity for India to continue to show the world how much has changed since this heinous crime.”
But the new deputy chief minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, whose party had supported the street protests that took place in the capital after the rape, criticised the film.
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**** British filmmaker Leslee Udwin addresses a press conference on her documentary film, India’s Daughter. Photograph: Altaf Qadri/AP********“What kind of journalism is this – interviewing a rapist and airing his views,” he said. “Don’t we know he’s a rapist? Why should people be told why he did it?”****
Udwin, however, received strong support from Kiran Bedi, a celebrated former female police officer who recently joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) of prime minister Narendra Modi.
****Indian women found their voice after the Delhi rape. Could this film help silence them again?********Nilanjana S Roy ****
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“I endorse India’s Daughter completely,” she said. “I would like to see every convicted rapist interviewed. Unless you know the cause of crime, how will you correct it?”
Appearing on a studio discussion of India’s Daughter on the NDTV news channelalongside Udwin, Asha and Badrinath Singh, the victim’s parents, also appeared to support the film.
“A convict in jail is challenging women and saying they dare not come out after 9pm,” said Asha Singh. “In our society, such people no longer have the fear of the law. They treat women like plates of food that can be consumed and discarded. They will destroy our society.”
Defending her film on Tuesday, Udwin said: “My integrity and my objective in making this film is totally honest. I myself have been raped. There is no shame for me; the shame is for the rapists. The film tries to show the disease is not the rapists, the disease is in society.”
