Daily Inqilab reveals underage rape survivor's identity in video
Multiple media outlets in Bangladesh have published news reports on the rape of a seven-year-old madrasa student in Savar, Dhaka. Some of these reports used symbolic images, while others used photos of Savar police station. However, a video published by Daily Inqilab on its official Facebook page directly disclosed the survivor’s identity, which goes against journalistic ethics as well as the law. Not only that, the child was also made to describe the incident of abuse in the video.
The father of the madrasa student in Savar, Dhaka, filed a case at Savar Model Police Station on Aug. 26 against four teachers and six students of the madrasa on charges of raping his son.
On Aug. 31, a video about the incident was posted on Daily Inqilab’s official Facebook page. The caption of the post read, “Teacher accused of raping 7-year-old madrasa student.”
Throughout almost the entire video, the child’s face is shown while he lies in bed. The child is seen describing the incident of abuse in front of the camera. No measure to conceal his identity is seen from the beginning to the end of the video.
As of this report’s publication, Inqilab’s video had been shared more than 800 times and viewed more than 76,000 times. The video had received more than 3,000 reactions and more than 600 comments.
Journalism guidelines and law say otherwise
Various journalism guidelines emphasize considering personal privacy and the risk of harm when publishing news about children and victims/survivors of sexual offenses. In the case of rape victims/survivors, whether children or adults, importance is also given to not disclosing their identity.
In particular, the Society of Professional Journalists’ guidelines call for extra sensitivity in cases involving children and victims/survivors of sexual offenses. They call for considering the potential harm of publishing news and for showing compassion toward victims/survivors.
According to UNICEF’s guidelines on reporting, names must be changed and visible identity should be obscured for child victims/survivors of sexual abuse, as well as for children who are perpetrators in the same type of crime, children living with HIV, and children who have been convicted.
In Bangladesh, Section 14 of the Nari O Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain, 2000 (Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000) clearly states a prohibition on disclosing the identity of women and child victims/survivors of abuse. Section 14(1) states that news, information, name, address, photo or other information about a crime or related legal proceedings concerning a woman or child who is a victim of an offense described in the act must not be published or disseminated in any newspaper or other news medium, or online or on social media, in a manner that discloses the identity of that woman or child.
If this law is not complied with, under Section 14(2), the responsible person may face imprisonment of up to two years, a fine of up to 100,000 taka, or both.
Inqilab’s video clearly showed the survivor’s face and also had him describe the incident of abuse. As a result, the video created a risk of exposing the child’s identity and his personal experience. At the same time, bringing the child in front of the camera to describe his experience in such a sensitive incident also raises questions from the perspective of journalism guidelines.
When asked about the video, Tanvir Khondokar, news editor (multimedia in-charge) of Daily Inqilab Digital, expressed regret and said the video would be removed. He acknowledged that the video conflicted with journalism principles and was published on social media in this way by mistake.
Inqilab removed the video soon after Dismislab informed them about the matter. The video is currently no longer available on their Facebook page.
The disclosure of rape victims’ identities in Bangladesh’s media is not a new occurrence. A report by Dismislab last July found that in a rape case in Thakurgaon, multiple media outlets in the country disclosed the victim’s identity and also failed to follow guidelines in presenting the incident.
(All social media and news media captions, quotations, and news excerpts in this article have been translated into English from the languages in which they were originally posted or published.)
