Sexual violence and the news media: Issues, challenges, and guidelines for journalists in India

This report – released on July 29, 2021 – is part of Media Action Against Rape (MAAR), a research project led by Bournemouth University, United Kingdom, and UNESCO, New Delhi. It was written by Dr. Chindu Sreedharan and Professor Einar Thorsen of Bournemouth University. To study the way sexual violence is reported in India, the report analysed 10 Indian newspapers across six languages – the Times of India, Hindustan Times, the Hindu, the Assam Tribune (English); Dainik Jagran, Hindustan Dainik (Hindi); Gujarat Samachar (Gujarati), Eanadu (Telugu), Vijaya Karnataka (Kannada) and Dina Thanthi (Tamil). The research for the report also included interviews with 257 journalists who worked across 14 languages and different mediums. A total of 33,575 newspaper pages and around 1,635 stories on rape and sexual violence – published between June 1 and August 31, 2018 – were studied for this report. The report records common patterns found in the coverage of sexual violence by news media. It also notes the various challenges faced by journalists – especially female journalists – while covering such stories...