Gay rights groups in India are demanding a public apology and are also considering legal action after a TV channel in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad broadcast a nearly 7-minute long news story that outed close to a dozen men who had their photographs on a gay personals website.
The Telugu-language report, which ran with a headline roughly translated as “Gay culture rampant in Hyderabad,” showed covertly filmed scenes of men in gay dance clubs as well as photos and other personal information displayed on the online profiles of local gay men.
The video by TV9 also featured two recorded telephone conversations between the reporter and two men who had listed their phone numbers on the website. The men, whose profile photographs were shown on screen, were asked to reveal their names, occupations, university, sexual preferences and where they live.
Accompanied by suspenseful music, their reporter observed that "gay culture in Hyderabad is increasing drastically" as "boys pursuing boys has become fashionable," according to an English translation being circulated. Another reporter declared that white-collar workers and highly qualified students were becoming “slaves to a lifestyle which is against the ‘natural way.’”
Although consensual sexual relations between men was decriminalised by the Delhi High Court in 2009, homosexuality is largely regarded to be a taboo.
India’s Ndtv.com reported today that one of the young men who was outed in the video had allegedly tried to commit suicide after his parents saw him in the TV report.
Since the video was uploaded to the TV station’s own Youtube channel on Wednesday, gay rights groups have fiercely condemned the TV station’s “blatant act of privacy and rights violation.” The video has since been removed by Youtube.
“Your news item has hunted down private profiles of individuals from a gay social networking website and then have aired not only their names and their pictures, it has also called them up in a clear attempt at entrapment and prodded them with leading questions about their private sexual lives, for the sole purpose of providing unnecessary titillation to your general viewers.” Aditya Bondyopadhyay, a lawyer and Director of LGBT rights group Adhikaar, wrote in a letter to TV9’s legal department highlighting the National Broadcasters Association Guidelines that they have breached.
Under Code 6 the guidelines, TV channels “must not intrude on private lives, or personal affairs of individuals, unless there is a clearly established larger and identifiable public interest for such a broadcast. The underlying principle that news channels abide by is that the intrusion of the private spaces, records, transcripts, telephone conversations and any other material will not be for salacious interest, but only when warranted in the public interest.”
Code 9 states: “As a guiding principle, sting and under cover operations should be a last resort of news channels in an attempt to give the viewer comprehensive coverage of any news story. News channels will not allow sex and sleaze as a means to carry out sting operations…”
Adhikaar further called for TV9 to be “held solely responsible for any harm or injury that is caused to any member of the LGBT community of Hyderabad or anywhere else in India where there is reception of your Telugu news channel, since your news item is clearly a case of incitement to targeted violence or discrimination against member of the LGBT community.”
To make amends for these violations, the letter demands that the TV 9 “airs an apology each, separately and specifically, to each and every individual who has been maliciously and unethically targeted” by the channel, as well as to publish a “news article apologising to the entire LGBT community of India whose security, constitutionally protected liberties and freedoms, and fundamental rights to a life of dignity, have been severely jeopardised by [the station’s] unscientific, prejudiced, unsubstantiated, malicious, and vicious content and comments.”
It also demands that TV9 “widely advertises its apologies in every news daily (newspaper) published in the city of Hyderabad in Telugu and English Language, on two separate days, so that the repairing of the damage that your news broadcast has caused to the safety and security of individuals and to an entire community is impactful and of a sustained nature.”
A peaceful protest has been planned for Friday, Feb 25 from 5.30pm at TV9 Maharashtra's office in Mumbai. For updates, visit “United against TV9” Facebook event page.
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Reader's Comments
Is there a petition that can be circulated worldwide???
Someone in India should start one and circulate it in every GLBT media outlet!!
News always in the name of "public interest", u dont hv to be rocket science to know that it is just their $$$ interest.
Modern Indian seem becoming narrow minded compare to their ancestor. Richard Gere kissed an Indian girl, ya fuckin big deal as compare to kama sutra in temples.
Will this make a difference? Who knows. Backward thinking and ignorance fuelled by self righteousness is a difficult combo to "cure".
Will this make a difference? Who knows. Backward thinking and ignorance fuelled by self righteousness is a difficult combo to "cure".
What to do , Blame mankind. We buy only sensationlised news . So the media will create more of such news so they make $$$$$$
But then again, newspapers, magazines and TV stations are just out for sensationalism, trying to improve their ratings, when in actual fact they turn out to be blight on society.
There are no restrictions to anyone signing up fpr these websites so anyone who posts a photo can be a target.
Sorry bt if u want to be closeted thats fine but dont put photos on the internet.
It is this same heterosexual community that condemns the gay community for "lowering India's morals". That is indeed the mindless refrain in all these homophobic attacks: that gay people are importing "filthy Western practices" and "sullying the pristine purity of India". They blithely ignore the fact that it is THEY who are shaming India in the eyes of the whole world with their relentless attacks on the female gender. While there are many sensible heterosexuals in India that have no problems with other people being gay, they are largely silent and neutral in this battle; the homophobes unfortunately form the majority in terms of sheer numbers and, in India, might is right.
India is a male-dominated society that defends the male sex at the expense of the female sex. Rape of females is not seen as a threat by these men (unless the victim happens to be their own daughter). Men rape; women get raped; that is how god has structured the human physiology. So, men sit pretty in the comforting belief that they can only be the predators and never the prey. Men in India can go anywhere safely, at any time, all by themselves; females must herd together for safety, and must never venture anywhere alone or without taking great care, and even then they can be subjected to crude suggestive remarks, invitations and groping by total strangers unless moving around in a very public place in broad daylight. If any single female raises a complaint of molestation, the first question she is asked is, what were you doing there all by yourself? The police are annoyed that she has created this problem for them by venturing out alone instead of "sensibly" going with some male companions.
Female rape is generally rationalised by saying things like: having sex is human nature, prostitution must be legalised so that these poor men need not be forced to turn to other women, etc. But, the attitude towards gay sex is different. These same heterosexual men, formerly secure in their role as predators, now feel threatened themselves because they feel they too can end up as the prey. They too can be studied, stalked or raped. Damn! No longer are they on top of the rape chain. No longer is it their prerogative to sit on the sidewalks mentally stripping passing females and making lewd comments. They are now uncomfortable at the thought that perhaps other men could be mentally stripping them naked in the same way; what a shocking idea. To them, any gay sex is like an attack on “their own kind”; an attack on the male gender itself. Any news of gay sex, even consensual, is received with more outrage than all the thousands of female rapes taking place in India annually put together. How DARE they attack one of our own kind! This is why the most virulent homophobes also happen to be the most “macho”, “he-man” types of men who think nothing of raping women and who like to boast of their female conquests. These two attitudes go hand in hand. In some of these things, India is only one step behind Islamic countries.
Gay people in India need be aware of the reality in India; they need to grow up and show more sense in the way they go about their search for partners. Unless you are completely "out" and don't care who knows that you are gay, do not provide personal information in online ads that can identify you, like clear photos, phone number, and so on. Before inviting some stranger to your home, arrange a meeting in a neutral venue through email and, only after that, decide if you want to go ahead with your relationship. Also, refuse to provide phone number, picture, etc. to some anonymous person online. If you need to know what they look like, the only reliable way is a video chat where you can actually see them talking to you. If someone sends you "their" picture, do not naively believe it is indeed their own picture. Or, the picture could indeed be theirs but 20 years old. When you do meet up with someone, avoid taking photos or videos of the two of you in "compromising positions", meaning naked, kissing, etc. Be aware that you can be blackmailed or otherwise shamed. If you still end up being blackmailed, do NOT give in, as blackmail NEVER stops. Try to get in touch with someone you can trust, like social activists and counsellors, and explore your options.
Also, avoid posting pictures of genitals in your personals ads. Indian gay personal ads are full of revolting self-pictures of genitals. Why? Is that all there is to being gay? Indian gays just make the whole gay community look like depraved and sex-crazed brutes; they are letting down the gay community by their naivete.
human is such cheap animal...so much cheaper because despite being given higher intelect...what they are capable of doing is still amazing !!
comment 22 : Shame on you , you are not only racist but you are generalising as well. lack of morality knows no boundaries of race, age , colour,,educational background, faith , sexuality. do not judge or you too would be judged , for the measure you use, it would be measured to you.
I wouldn't be surprised that TV9 is the type of channel that appeals to the lower middle class that has nothing better to do than to marginalise something that they have very little understanding in. And not realising that they are ruining lives in the process... very, very sad.
I hope the Indian men outed by this process are given the necessary support they need, in at least something that could be done something about, but getting TV9 to change their mind may be a different story.
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