Every day, another life is less private

Two popular names for girls, so common we don8217;t give them a second thought. Why, they don8217;t even go together like Sita aur Gita. Y...

Two popular names for girls, so common we don8217;t give them a second thought. Why, they don8217;t even go together like Sita aur Gita. Yet, the two have become inextricably linked in our minds and a few weeks ago, two young girls wished they were called anything but A and B because suddenly, everyone knew their names, everyone knew the colour of their hair, recognised their features and the tragedy that befell them.

In the 8216;8216;story of two Eves8217;8217; as told by NDTV,yuml;the two girls lived please note the tense in Meerut8217;s Pocket X of Sector Z in Colony Y. Sorry, the correspondent forgot to add the pin code and the telephone number. Next time. According to the correspondent, the girls had fallen in love. With each other. Naturally, this frightened Meerut8217;s Pocket X of Sector Z in Colony Y out of its heterosexual complacency, so one girl consumed suicide, sorry insecticide. NDTV arrived at the other8217;s doorstep, put her on camera but allowed her mother to do the talking. Eventually, the girl was persuaded to speak; she did so behind a mosaic but we had already been shown her face, so why did they bother?

What she said does not matter; the fact that we knew who she was and what, apparently, she had done, was enough to mark her for life as well as Pocket X of you know what. No wonder, indignant citizens eagerly came forward to be seen lamenting the moral turpitude of modern times 8212; chhi-chhi.

Since then, the girl and her family, as we like to say, are absconding. No one, least of all the TV camera that made them famous, knows where to look for them. Likewise, the victim8217;s family. Strange as it may seem to us media maniacs but perfectly understandable otherwise, they have developed camera shyness.

Last week, on Channel 7 we saw the burnt soles of a young girl8217;s feet;yuml;her arms were in plaster, her forehead bruised, reportedly, by a loving and demonstrative step-mother. Just in case you were hard of seeing, the reporter circled her burns as the camera lunged into a close-up. We saw the little girl in hospital, surrounded by nurses, jostling to fit into the camera frame; immediately upon her release the child came straight to the Channel 7 correspondent on the arm of a gentleman. Think it was the neighbour who had rescued her.

He clearly relished the opportunity to recount the sad details of her traumatic experiences; even more evident was his enjoyment in detailing how her brother was beaten, thrown out of the house, worked in a nearby local liquor bar and lived in appalling conditions. The girl spoke of her step-mother8217;s step-motherly treatment of her, her father grabbed his moment of stardom, only too happy to admit his wife8217;s villainy. We were also taken inside his home, and treated to the spectacle of Madam Wife being slapped and scolded by the neighbours? as she stoutly defended herself. Enough to reduce anyone to tears and, on cue, the wicked step-mother assumed the role of the local water works department.

All this and more on live, recorded TV.

Each day, every news channel delights in similar heartrending spectacles 8212; which is what they are. Victims and villains or suspects receive equal coverage as the most intimate details of their lives become public property. They stand, quite literally, exposed. To the viewer8217;s interest and curiosity in anything that is criminal, considered deviant or freakish. In fact, the more criminal, 8216;deviant8217; or 8216;freakish8217;, the more likely it is to receive coverage to keep our eyes from straying to another channel for similar stimuli.

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The two stories quoted above reveal how TV8217;s strength has become its greatest failing or weakness. These stories illustrate news channels public spirit, social conscience, and their commitment to the pursuit of crime and justice. However, in the process, there has been a breach of privacy that grows wider with each new story. Think of the girls in these stories, multiply them into thousands like them who have to flee their homes and seek refuge from the media in order to continue to live in the obscurity they enjoyed before we went barging in with our microphones and questions.