Tamil journalist Jeya Rani highlights casteism in the Indian ‘mainstream’ media, at the Hyderabad National Meet

“Crimes against Dalits see a rise of 10-20% every year. In a just society, the media’s space to violence against Dalits should have correspondingly increased too. But has it happened? We all know it has not. Just like in a society where we have rigid caste hierarchies, the media and journalists too operate on the basis of caste hierarchies. The fourth pillar of democracy has come crumbling down under the pressure of caste hierarchies when it should have stood upright holding the torch of justice.”

The text of this speech by Jeya Rani, a journalist for over 15 years from Tamil Nadu, translated into English by Kavitha Muralidharan, is at http://thewire.in/80117/caste-bias-mainstream-media/