Perhaps there is no such thing as privacy in Bangladesh. Even where it exists, many in the authorities or the media do not understand what it means. Even if they do understand, they are unwilling to act according to the essence of privacy.
This unwillingness is strongest when an opportunity arises to violate a woman’s privacy. Society has still not found any way to suppress the urge to humiliate women in public.
Last Tuesday, personnel of the detective branch raided the residence of an Additional DIG of police in Purbachal, near Dhaka. It was described as an anti-narcotics operation (though these days even a raid on a club or bar is called an “anti-narcotics operation”). But there did not seem to be much presence of drugs there.
In the photos released, although there was a bottle and a half of liquor, the absence of narcotics was noticeable. However, that is not the problem with this operation. The question is about the way the operation was publicized in the media, or the way arrangements were made to publicize it.
Some days ago, during a police raid on a club called German Club in Dhaka, the entire scene was being filmed from outside the main gate. As the club’s guests came out one by one, they were filmed, and the video was spread on social media, with one particular woman going viral on social media.
But what happened in Purbachal was even more disgraceful, and here it was not only the unbridled content creators of social media, but even established mainstream news media that got involved.
What Is ‘immoral activity?’
Videos were shot inside the Purbachal house, in various rooms. When several girls came down the stairs from the upper floor, one or two tried to cover their faces with their orna (scarf) while their faces were being filmed, but most could not.
The men present also appeared in the video, though the focus was mostly on the women. Hearing the description of the raid, many will assume that some “immoral activity” was going on there. And when, on top of that, one woman’s face after another appears in the video, no psychologist is needed to understand what picture forms in the public’s mind.
Here the question may be asked: Which is the immoral activity? Adult men and women socializing inside a home? Or is it the filming of women, calling the house a “harem,” and humiliating them socially?
By shooting and circulating the video, the women were not merely humiliated. They were humiliated knowingly and deliberately, and their safety was put at risk.
One thing needs to be made clear. It is normal for police to record videos in any operation. It is important to preserve through video information such as whether the operation is being conducted according to the police’s own rules, how and where evidence was found, and how and where the detainees were held.
But that video would be the police’s own evidence, meant to assist their own investigation, an important part of the process of collecting testimony and evidence against the accused.
Such a video will play an important role in framing formal charges and conducting the case. Similarly, the accused’s lawyers can use these same police videos to try to get the allegations against their client dismissed. But the videos of the recent operations do not seem to have been taken to assist a case.
The police’s role in the media’s work
First, it is not clear who shot the videos. At least from the video taken outside the gate of German Club, it seemed that it was no one from the police. That is, someone who got news of the raid went there and filmed it.
Is the Purbachal incident the same? The videos were taken both inside and outside the house. One woman was seen pointing a finger at the person filming and saying something. Had someone from the police been holding the camera, that woman would perhaps not have done so.
The most disgraceful thing was spreading those videos on social media, exposing the women’s faces, and humiliating them in public.
Such an incident, while not common, once again begs the question of ethics in a section of the country’s media. Law enforcement agencies also have a big role in building this habit.
For many years, the police, and later RAB or BGB, have been supplying the media with photos and identities of people detained on charges of some alleged crime.
Even when the detainee was only a suspect, his photo was given to the media, often with a signboard calling him a criminal hung around his neck. This still happens.
That a person is innocent until proven guilty in court, this fundamental principle of law seems to be unknown to Bangladesh’s law enforcement agencies.
The Bangladeshi media industry too has never quite had anything in the way of editorial policy or ethical standards. Some large organizations have discussed ethics and, in some cases, tried to create a policy of their own.
For example, at one time the photos and identities of women who were victims of rape used to be printed. But that has changed. The identity of victims is now kept secret in most cases.
But the accused also deserve this kind of protection. Formal charges can be framed against someone only when there is sufficient evidence, and until charges are framed, the identity of the accused should also be kept secret.
Editorial policy and ethics
Even now, photos of accused or suspected persons provided by the police are being published along with their identities. As for social media content creators, that is a separate matter, and it is doubtful whether there is any editorial vetting in their work.
In many cases, such creators run a channel single-handedly, and they depend entirely on view counts and engagement for income. They do not have time to worry about editorial “decency” or ethical considerations.
Established mainstream media is a different matter. They have staff and the capacity to read and think about what has been done in other countries of the world on journalistic rules, editorial policy, ethics, and so on.
It is possible for them to create their own policies on how to report while protecting the rights, privacy, and safety of ordinary people, and to give journalists the necessary training on these matters.
In particular, established media can sensitize journalists on how to cover delicate stories involving women, children, religious or ethnic minorities, and other vulnerable groups.
This work should have been done long ago. But even now, photos, names, and identities of detainees provided by the police are still being published.
The media needs to think about how their reporting can harm ordinary people. Care must be taken so that people who are innocent in the eyes of the law are not declared “guilty” in a media trial and socially humiliated.
Humiliating those who have no power, who are not wealthy, who have no connections in high circles, and who have no influential mama-chacha in political circles is not merely wrong. It is quite literally another crime. This is especially so when women’s photos or videos are being published with no regard for their social dignity and safety.
Just as initiative is needed from the media industry to stop this practice, the government also needs to impose restrictions on the police so that they do not do anything that could humiliate people before a trial in court.
Sabir Mustafa is the former head of BBC Bangla and is currently working as a freelance journalist and podcaster. Views expressed are the author’s own.