Sexual Violence and the News Media: Issues, Challenges and Guidelines for Journalists in India

"The news reportage of sexual violence in India has frequently been criticised for perpetuating rape myths, using sensationalistic language, victim-blaming, and selectively covering cases based on the sites of crime and the profile of those involved."

This report presents the findings of a large-scale national study on the news reporting of sexual violence in India. Based on a content analysis of newspapers and interviews with journalists, the report looks at how rape and sexual violence are routinely portrayed by the news media, as well as the constraints and challenges that journalists face as they undertake sexual violence reporting on a day-to-day basis. It also presents national and organisational recommendations and concludes by offering guidelines that individual journalists and media houses can adapt to suit their news routines. The study forms part of Media Action Against Rape (MAAR)[https://www.maar.in/], a research and capacity-building project led by Bournemouth University and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) New Delhi. 

The content analysis covered 10 newspapers - two Hindi, one each in Gujarati, Telugu, Kannada, and Tamil, and four English - that cater to diverse regional audiences across India. The purpose was to identify the patterns in the daily reportage of sexual violence - the non-sensational assaults - that make up the bulk of incidents across India. The research compared the frequency of reports, the placement of stories (as an indicator of the importance accorded to the issue), the types of sexual violence reported, and the locations — urban or rural — that are prioritised. It also examined how victims and perpetrators are described, and which sources are afforded a voice in relation to rape and sexual violence. This was done across news content in six languages for a comparative analysis. 

Informed by the content analysis, in-depth interviews with 257 reporters and editors - working across print, television, radio, and online in 14 languages - were conducted to identify how journalists reported on sexual violence. This part of the study sought information on their story-identification and newsgathering practices, the challenges they faced within and outside their newsrooms, the guidelines and principles they followed, and the way they thought about their own roles in mitigating sexual violence. 

The key findings highlighted in the report are:  

Patterns in daily news about sexual violence

• - News outlets tend to disproportionately publish unusual cases, such as those involving extreme brutality or attacks by strangers, thus presenting a misleading picture of how sexual violence usually manifests in India.
• - The key deciding factor that governed journalists’ decision on covering a sexual violence incident is the ‘profile’ of the victim or perpetrator (according to 20.6% of respondents). Law-and-order responses is the second-most critical factor (16.7%), followed by ‘gravity’ of the crime (14%).  
• - Newspapers were typically concerned with rape in urban areas (49%); only 22% were about incidents in rural locations.
• - The majority of news reporting on rape and sexual violence was made up of ‘spot’ news stories, focusing on the details of the attack, and lacking in context.
• - While overt victim-blaming was evident in only 2.2% cases, very rarely was there an attempt to provide a voice, direct or otherwise, for the victim.
• - Only 19.5% of respondents said they used the term ‘rape’ in their news reporting. Most (51%) tended to use euphemisms instead.    
• - The majority of journalists (78%) said they felt responsible for effecting change in relation to sexual violence. Despite this, very few stories, just below 7%, focused on solutions. 

Sources and news gathering challenges

• - More than 50% of reporters said they relied heavily on police reports and sources for their crime stories, and generally approached other sources (if at all) afterwards.
• - 27% of journalists cited hurdles from police as limiting their work. 
• - Women reporters were overall less inclined than men to depend on police sources. Some women journalists also mentioned experiencing gender bias from the police. 
• - 35% of respondents cited lack of access to victims as a hurdle when reporting on sexual violence.
• - More than 74% of respondents who discussed details of their reporting indicated they did not undertake investigations or in-depth reportage of sexual violence incidents.

Safety of journalists and personal impact

• - Almost 20% of respondents said they experienced significant distress while reporting on sexual violence. This factor was more pronounced among women than men.
• - 55% of women journalists said they had directly experienced or witnessed workplace sexual harassment or violence, typically perpetrated by someone who wielded power through seniority or a supervisory role.
• - The research identified three areas where women journalists are particularly vulnerable to harassment and unwanted attention during newsgathering: from bystanders; during interactions with police officers; and when dealing with elite sources.

Guidelines and training

- There was a conspicuous lack of formal editorial guidelines across newsrooms in India. Only 13% of the respondents said they had access to written guidelines, while 14% said they did not have any type of guidelines at all. 

- Education and training were seen as critical mitigations against stereotypes and biases.

Based on the findings, the report offers a set of recommendations to address the key issues highlighted in the research. These recommendations are informed by two rounds of consultations with stakeholders in India - journalists, representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and women’s rights organisations, and media educators - and are presented as principles to implement, both at the national and organisational levels.

National recommendations include, for example, establishing a national charter for news reporting of rape and sexual violence, establishing collaborative news media networks to share experiences and best practices, developing specific educational interventions for media and journalism students, and developing general educational interventions to improve media literacy for young adults. Organisational recommendations include adopting and integrating reporting guidelines into everyday newswork, agreeing on an institutional approach to the use of language associated with rape and sexual violence, introducing a regular debriefing session for staff involved in reporting on rape and sexual violence, and engaging in regular promotion and reporting of policies and programmes targeting rape and sexual violence reduction.