I just happened to read an article reported by two leading dailies in Chennai, The Hindu and TOI…The story has been reported very differently in both the papers...Read on…
Headline:
Hindu: Major-General dismissed from service
TOI: Major General to be fired for sexual harassment
A few excerpts:
Hindu: A serving Major General was dismissed from service by an Army Court after he was found guilty of molesting a woman officer under his command, in the first such case in the history of the country’s armed forces
TOI: Though general-rank officers have been court-martialled for financial bungling and other scams in the Army in recent years, this is the first time that such a senior officer has faced a court-martial for sexual harassment.
Hindu: Woman officer Capt. Neha Rawat gave a written complaint that he indulged in sexual misconduct under the pretext of conducting meditation classes at his residence.
TOI: The court held him guilty of molesting the woman officer serving under him on the pretext of teaching her yoga and meditation in his bedroom.
Hindu: The GCM, with the Army’s 10 Corps commander Lt. Gen. R.S. Sujalana
TOI: GCM, commander of the 10 Corps at Bhatinda, headed by Lt-Gen R S Sujlana
Hindu: Two-star general serving as the 3 Infantry Division General Officer
TOI: Commander of the strategically-located 3 Infantry Division
Well, TOI this time has shown some kind of maturity in reporting this issue. In fact the TOI article goes on to show a few statistics about how many woman commanders are there in the Indian army and the like. Whereas the Hindu article has not really delved deep, and has under played the issue to a considerable extent. Hindu also published the name of the victim which is against the PCI rules.The name of the Lt-Gen is spelled differently in both the papers. TOI has spiced up the issue...Hindu has ignored it…
This leaves me wondering…Do papers report news or do they report for news?
2 comments:
though it took you few more months, I am happy that you also started wondering :)
it is just the cost we have to pay for endorsing a market/money/profit driven economy/life.
What does more people like to read - that is news.
How is it reported? In the way more people like to read it.
Its pure business. Why blame the fourth estate alone, when the whole world runs like this.
not only the spelling mistake, but the rank of the poor officer is also changed - note that the same person is referred to as Major General and then a Lt General. Lt General is senior to a Maj General. In this case the person must have been a Lt General as Commanding Officers of a Corps are usually senior ranking generals :-) if he was dismissed, in addition to no pension, he would have lost the monthly canteen quota of scotch and rum :-)
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