The NWMI has sent strong letters of protest to the Press Council of India and the Editors’ Guild of India about two recent articles on the Tehelka case, based on CCTV footage, which disregard the law as well as journalistic ethics.
On December 16, 2012, the gang-rape of a young woman in a bus in Delhi triggered outrage across the board, putting freedom from rape and sexual assault at the forefront of public debate. Ironically, young lawyer revealed that during those very protests, a retired judge of the highest court of the land had sexually harassed her while she was working with him as an intern, and that she was able to speak about it only 10 months later. On December 16, 2013, women’s rights activists across India issued a statement:
The NWMI demands that media houses across the country comply with the law by setting up sexual harassment complaints and redressal committees within the workplace that include at least one member external to the organisation with relevant knowledge and experience in dealing with such matters. It should be noted that the internal complaints mechanism is to be set up and its existence made known to all employees irrespective of whether or not a complaint has been made or is anticipated. Compliance with the law is the very least that mediawomen expect of the media which are, after all, supposed to be the watchdogs of society.
