The Khushboo Episode: How media played it's cards Right, but got the ethics wrong!

The Khushboo Episode: How media played it's cards Right, but got the ethics wrong!

A casual statement by South Indian actress Khushboo created such uproar, that Indians were left scurrying for cover. Talking to a TV channel (Tamil edition of India Today, which recently did a survey on sex and the single woman, wrote a column on the subject where she spoke her mind on pre-marital sex in September), Khushboo said there was nothing wrong in women having sex before marriage, they should just be careful and have safe sex. She also added that no educated Tamil men should not expect their women to be virgins! This was to a certain extend blown out of proportion by the media's in question. The comment created such a storm; Khushboo was left weeping and also asking for forgiveness. Widely inflamed by the piece appearing in the Tamil edition of the national magazine 'India Today' from the Living Media Publication group, which also has a presence in T.V, the Two Tamil parties, DMK and Dalit Panthers (components of the current coalition at the centre) and critical of the present Jayalalithaa-led Tamil Nadu Government were angry that the actress chose to bring the character of Tamil women to disrepute. This comment made front-page headlines in the majority of the Print Media and was the highlight in the daily news bulletin in Television as well as Radio. Some news channels even chose to seclude the budgetary proposal to the secondary status while story was being aired or published .No media lost the opportunity to hyperbolize the issue to make the most of the opportunity, which for many was an easy story that is a means to fill the grey matter and the air waves for atleast a couple of weeks minimum.

Khushboo was publicly harassed, with eggs being pelted at her and a defamation case against lodged against her. Strange, talk of safe sex in a country with second highest AIDS victims number should have been is construed to such an extent. And every second of her agony and misfortune was like hot cakes which wasn't just delicious but was more importantly more than sufficient to earn quick buck for some of the so called media looking considering their reporting. This is how most of the Media in India viewed this episode. All the media practitioners knew that this story is likely to run out of steam sooner rather than later and realizing this fact the media were hell bent on making sure that the squeeze the maximum out of this episode no matter the means and the ultimate result

It later turned out that the entire drama was orchestrated to score few brownie points against the Tamil Nadu chief minister, it is very important to point out that the relationship with the media and the state govt. headed by Jayalalitha has not been the most rosiest or the most cordial to say the least. The world watched as India's media, instead of talking frankly on safe sex and enlighten the masses about the dangers of unprotected sex, chose to create an issue of a non-issue. Very discerning Indians wondered when India would emerge out middle age mindset.

When one carefully analyses the core content of the interview it is not hard to imagine, perhaps she indeed had went a little too far... and it could be that many of us may not wish to agree with her... when she said that today "no educated man would expect his wife to be a virgin." But the rest of what she said - about the level of pre-marital sex and free sex prevalent in Indian society today, and the need for women to protect themselves against dangers of unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases - was pretty much in line with what is happening in some sections of our society today. Here is where the real bone of contention arises, why did the media chose to discreetly withheld this important detail of the information from the general public. As it is said half-truth could be just as harmful as a whole lie. What was the reason for this selective editing and manipulation of news, was it a simple case of news being cut to fit the limitation of the news media or was this a malicious attempt to distort the news to suit the goals and ambition of the news network or publication that is carrying it. This debate would continue to be discussed for many years to come in the journalistic as well as social circles. But whether one agrees or not with her views, surely the actress has the freedom to express them. Particularly in an era where every other magazine and newspaper is working overtime to grab the attention of "the young reader" with colourful images of scantily dressed actresses and models. So explicit has become the content of our newspapers and magazines that recently a reader had to go to the court and seek a directive declaring a couple of newspapers he had named as "Adult"! Now who decides what is suited and beneficial to the vulnerable and gullible masses, this media which very cleverly chooses to turn a blind eye to the explicit and degenerating content in their programming, publication or their promotion??? As and when they like. And what makes things worse is that these medias are the first to point fingers at others.

So ferocious was the attack on Khushboo headed by the local media, that Khushboo had to appear on a television channel and tender an apology saying that it was not her intention to hurt anybody's views, which I would again like to point out was more or less considered as not being as news worthy as the rest of the episode was.

The best person to comment on the issue is, Cho Ramaswamy, Editor of Tughlak, and a Tamil cinema veteran and a political and a social commentator who has experienced the media from both the sides. While commenting on this issue Mr. Ramaswamy said, "While I do not agree with what she has said, she is entitled to her views. Now those who are agitating against her have accused her of having defamed or maligned Tamil women. In her article she has not said a single word about Tamil Nadu or the women of Tamil Nadu. Her opinions were generally about women. What the agitators accuse of her saying is totally wrong. India Today has been publishing surveys again and again which claim to record the opinion of women of Tamil Nadu. And in these surveys they claim about 20-25 per cent of these women say they are for free sex or pre-marital sex. Now I don't know whether this is truly their opinion or that of the person doing the survey."

He also questioned why the protestors have not said a word against India Today, which did the original survey. He feel's the entire protest against Khushboo is motivated, perhaps politically."

Coming down heavily on the serials aired by TV channels, Ramaswamy said these TV channels "regularly put on air serials which malign women in a very devastating manner. Nobody seems to care, perhaps because they are being telecast by Sun TV. So while neither India Today nor Sun TV has been targeted, Khushboo was chosen perhaps because she is a soft target; and they somehow wanted to claim a victory."

While the Khushboo episode will blow over sooner than later, what is worrying is the double standards and hypocrisy practiced in our society and selective hitting out at soft targets, which are picked and sorted by the media as per their choice. Another thing that we have to worry about is the extreme intolerance of views that do not fit the goody-goody image that we have of our society and culture which is again projected by the media. So when a Khushboo comes out in a forthright manner to air her opinion, the least she deserves is support and solidarity when confronted with such ugly protests. Even if one does not agree with her opinion. It is this media which is contradicting the rules and principles that it has created, and itself chooses to flout at will.

The classic case of the blatant violation of core media ethics is the case where personalities like Sania Mirza and Narain Karthikeyan where unknowingly dragged into the whole issue while attending the HT event organised by The Hindustan Times.At the HT event, neither the Mirza nor HT need have worried about the length-of-skirt remarks. They were largely ignored by Sania’s critics who seized, instead, on a new controversy.

On Saturday, the newspapers reported the story that Sania endorses Khushboo’s views on Pre-marital Sex. The problem was: Sania had said nothing about Khushboo or about pre-marital sex during session. It was some enterprising reporter had grabbed Sania (and Narain and Natalie, who were quoted as agreeing with her) as the session ended, and asked a few leading questions? Possibly. But the reports were quite specific. Sania was supposed to have made these remarks during our session at the HT Summit. Which, she had clearly not.

Sania Mirza has been turned into the accuse and she had to come out on the open and defend herself. Distancing herself from her reported support to South Indian film star Khushboo on the issue of pre-marital sex, tennis star Sania Mirza on Friday said her belief was otherwise.

Maintaining that she was deeply pained at the maligning of her image and making a non-issue into a serious controversy by misquoting her on the pre-marital sex issue, she said in a statement that "they were totally false connotations about my justifying pre-marital sex".

Sania, along with Miss Universe Natalie Glebanova and Formula One star Narain Karthikeyan, had reportedly voiced support to Khushboo at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit held in Delhi earlier this week. All thanks to the mainstream media. The corporate, controversy-hungry media. Nothing happened to India Today magazine for having run the surveys and the stories and for inviting Khushboo to write about gender issues. Nothing happened to Hindustan Times for having asked Sania questions to respond regarding dress code. And Sania gave in to the hungry journalists.

So, that does not take away the grim reality, which still is to be posed as a question. India Today got its sales. Hindustan Times got a breaking story that it got the words off the mouth of Sania for the first time etc. And other media publications linked both of them together and came up with a theory that suggested Sania supporting Khushboo. Natural, aren’t it?

Our media which according to popular belief has crowned itself the champion of the freedom of expression could so mercilessly choose to stammple and in all essence crushed a voice which had mustered the courage to raise a voice against the orthodoxy is extraordinary to comprehend. Other important contentious issue is the way innocent and unwary people in the melee by either misquoting them or by enticing them to get the desired relation or opinion from them.

The media has been effectively spit in two groups: -Between the one who were vehemently opposed to every aspect of Khushboo's views and the one which took more of a neutral viewpoint.

The Opposers: -

The India Today group: -

Mainly highlighted the negatives.

Headlines Today and Aaj tak which only seeked to profit from the episode.

Sun TV: - As it was a channel owned by the rivals of Jayalalitha they were hell bent to extracting the maximum political mileage from the entire episode. India T.V:- They made the most of the episode and their ratings soared. Indian Express was the most disappointing, their reporting was too biased and sometime got the their facts totally wrong. PTI:-The were involved in misquoting Sania and Narain and were largely responsible for dragging the duo in to the entire controversy for no fault of their own, PTI was overzealous and irresponsible at times while reporting the news. NDTV managed to keep a nice balancing job and covering all their bases and keeping everybody happy.

The Neutrals: -

The Hindu: -The very few, which offered the most realistic view in the entire episode.

Outlook Magazine: -The most liberal voice in the media.

The Hindustan Times: - Was the diplomatic voice in the scheme of things.

Jaya T.V is owned by Jayalalitha, this channel took a pro or more of neutral side to the Khushboo cause. Doordarshan did a commendable job by just sticking to the basics and giving priority to news and news alone. The Times Of India was as silent as The Times can be.

The campaign surrounding Tamil actress Khushboo's remarks on premarital sex seems to have died down. The flurry of protests and defamation suits have petered out. The actress has apologised for her remarks, and the court has granted her bail. But the fallout of the controversy appears to be taking centre-stage. The liberal, metropolitan media have been outraged by the whole episode because they feel that it is an infringement of the freedom of expression or so they made it out to be. And this is reflected in the rituals that are played out on the television chat shows. Puppets from the opposite side are brought in to emphasise how foolish the reactionaries really are. But in this entire playful struggle in the glare of the arc lights, some of the simple issues are overlooked.