Telugu media revels in gore

BY Madabhushi Sridhar| IN Media Practice | 07/01/2011

When Suri, prime accused in the murder of TDP leader Ravi, was shot dead, His bloodied body was shown with close up shots unmindful of any sort of media ethics or sensitivity.

MADABHUSHI SRIDHAR comments on the insensitivity shown by the channels. Pix: Maddelachervu Suri

The Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act penalizes glorification of criminals. If this law is pressed, almost all TV channels in Andhra Pradesh would be prosecuted. When Gangula Suryanarayana Reddy alias Maddelachervu Suri, prime accused in the murder of TDP leader, Paritala Ravi, was shot in his own car on 3^rd January 2011, the visual media suspended all their regular programs and turned their cameras on to this event and continued with their coverage for hours after his death.

Viewers were denied any other information, including news. His bloodied body was shown with close up shots unmindful of any sort of media ethics or sensitivity. The post mortem was explained by the doctor who conducted it to the accompaniment of close up shots of the injuries. The scene of the body being handled on the stretcher was shown constantly. Changing the channels was pointless as the same was being telecast by all the Telugu channels. They telecast minute details of the funeral, its timings and the streams of fans and friends paying rich tributes. It was as if a very important leader of the state had passed away and was being cremated with full honours.

A couple of channels which had scheduled discussions on the pros and cons of the Sri Krishna Committee Report on the Telangana issue cancelled these and shifted to Suri. Interviews with Suri’s wife and others who knew the deceased filled the gaps while anchors raised stock questions like, ‘`What is latest information with you, what is the reaction of Suri’s fans, what are the police doing and whether it will lead to factional violence in Seema Districts.’’ As has been witnessed during such events in the past, including the attacks on Mumbai, channels ran berserk with the coverage and reporters with their language. Channels abandoned their sense of balance in an attempt to outdo each other and repeatedly showed the dead body and wailing women.

Tv9, Studio N, Ntv, I News, Gemini News, Raj News, Etv and HmTv…almost all news channels in Telugu with slight variation in intensity, glorified a killer. The funeral of Suri is being repeated for more than week. With some professional concern and respect for ethics Etv and HmTv were showing some restraint, but an onslaught with repeated blood spilling was common

Comparatively, print media exhibited professional standards in reporting the murder.

On almost all the channels the coverage was interspersed with shots from producer-director Ram Gopal Varma’s film Raktha Charitra which was based on the life of slain legislator Paritala Ravi and the faction feuds in Rayalaseema. Being a biographical crime thriller with political overtones, the film became controversial and though it was not a big hit at the box office, Verma came out with a sequel within weeks and titled it Raktha Charitra II in which Suri was portrayed by a popular hero from southern India. While the electronic media aired shots and songs from this movie on the day of Suri’s assassination, the print media went a step ahead the next day and described the murder as Raktha Charitra III. As the channels showed the movie and the murder shots intermittently it was difficult to distinguish the movie from the murder.

While on the one hand the channels showed grief on the other they showed celebrations by Ravi supporters who burst crackers and spoke of how Suri had reaped the consequences of his acts and that it was bound to happen. There is an urgent need to impose restrictions on what channels report on and the manner in which anchors and TV crew intrude upon the privacy of those who are grieving and the sensitivity of those who are viewing.

(The writer is Professor of Media Law, NALSAR University Hyderabad)