Lift ban on BBC docu: Editors Guild
Even as the BBC documentary “India''s daughter” banned by the Union home ministry continues to be available for viewing on the internet, the Editors Guild of India has demanded that the government should revoke the ban as the move was "wholly unwarranted".
“India''s Daughter” is a BBC produced documentary depicting the aftermath of the brutal gang rape and murder of 23-year old braveheart Jyoti Singh popularly known as Nirbhaya.
The Guild has said that the ban is wholly unwarranted, as it is based on a misunderstanding of the power and the message behind it.
In a statement the Guild said the government should revoke the ban forthwith and enable the people to view what is a positive and powerful documentary touching on the freedom, dignity and safety of women.
It has added that prompted by initial expressions of outrage, including by Members of Parliament, over the views of the convict included in the documentary, the government seems to have decided on the ban without viewing the documentary in its entirety. It has rejected the rationale that the ban was in the interests of justice and public order as the film "created a situation of tension and fear amongst women" and also observed that the argument that the convict would use the media to further his case in the appeal that was sub-judice seems to be an afterthought.
Rejecting the idea of a ban on the film several parliamentarians including film writer Javed Akhtar had observed that it is a good thing that several Indian males have realised that their attitude towards women is akin to that of the rapist shown in the film.
There has been considerable outrage over the views
expressed by the defence lawyers in this film, and the Bar Council of India is expected to take a view on the action that should be taken against the two lawyers-M L Sharma and A P Singh for the opinions expressed by them in the documentary. A case against A P Singh is already pending on a similarly related matter. The documentary portrays the courage, sensitivity and liberal outlook of a family traumatised by the brutality inflicted on the daughter, the continuing shameful attitudes towards women among the convict as well as the educated including lawyers and multiple voices in support of women''s freedom and dignity including students, former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Justice Leila Seth, Oxford academic Maria Misra and senior advocate and former Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam. It also includes an interview of Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus in which the 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gang raped by six men on December 16, 2012. He has made derogatory statements against women in the documentary.