AUCKLAND: The newly formed Hindu Media Watch has criticised what it calls “insensitive and irresponsible” reporting by some New Zealand media about the tragic death of Indo-Fijian nurse Ranjeeta Sharma near Huntly in the Waikato earlier this month.
It is also considering laying formal complaints with the Broadcasting Standards Authority and NZ Press Council.
A report in the Waikato Times of January 24 and on the Fairfax group website Stuff characterised Sharma’s death as an Indian ritual of “honour killing”.
Hindu Media Watch said “unsubstantiated, uneducated and incorrect information” on ethnic culture was echoed by other media, including TV3, following an interview with Roy Vellara, president of the Waikato Indian Cultural Society.
Stuff reported:
”Police would not comment on whether the case was a "bride burning", or honour killing, a form of domestic violence practised on the Indian subcontinent when a victim had brought shame on the family.
“But the manner in which Mrs Sharma died did not surprise Waikato Indian Cultural Society president Roy Vellara, who said the name Sharma was common in North India where most honour killings were performed.
“Mr Vellara said people were burned alive as it was a way to get rid of any evidence and could be considered an accident.
“Reasons for the killing were often due to the dowry payment by a woman's family to her new husband for adultery. “
'Media-bashing' reports
This report and similar “stereotyping” reports in other media prompted concerned Indo-Fijians and Indians to call meetings in Auckland to show their concern and disappointment at the “media-bashing’ of a community.
The meetings held in Manukau and West Auckland on January 27 and 28 resolved to form Hindu Media Watch as a media watchdog to monitor and report on issues affecting ethnic communities, especially Indians in general and Hindus in particular.
This group is a division of the Hindu Council of New Zealand.
Hindu Media Watch coordinator Rakesh Krishnan expressed his disappointment at the way media handled this tragic happening in an ethnic migrant community, which is rarely represented in New Zealand media.
“A number of communities have raised great concerns about the negative labelling by targeting a particular last name and stigmatising manner in which some community groups have been sought to be labelled as condoning of ‘honour killing’ by some fringe organisations claiming to be Indian but only seeking cheap publicity and following a bigoted agenda, sensation seeking journalists and news media,” said a Hindu Media Watch statement.
The media watch group described the incident as being “even more abhorrent” than one that led to the resignation of TVNZ Breakfast host Paul Henry last year for mocking the surname of an Indian cabinet minister.
Other community organisations and leaders have also criticised media tagging by race, surname and “honour killing” which tended to lessen the seriousness, magnitude and gravity of a violent killing.
'Premature' speculation
Tika Ram, a former member of Satsang Ramayan Mandali, an Auckland-based Indian religious society, told the NZ Herald that honour killings were "very uncommon" in Fiji. The Herald also cited Auckland Indian Society president Harshad Patel saying media speculation that Sharma's death was an honour killing was "premature" and it seemed unlikely.
He added that such incidents were nonexistent in “civilised societies - especially in New Zealand".
According to a Radio Australia report, human rights activists and director of Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, Shameema Ali expressed scepticism about reports in New Zealand media speculating that the death of Ranjeeta Sharma in Auckland may have been an honour killing, as she said such incidents did not happen in Fiji among Indo-Fijians.
Krishnan said his new group had received numerous expressions of concern from members of other community organisations.
He added that the meetings in Manukau and West Auckland were called because of the concern of the community at the Indian and Hindu-bashing and distorted reporting on ethnic issues by some media in New Zealand despite attempts at correcting such disinformation.
Krishnan said part of the problem was that some ethnic communities were not well represented by a divisive leadership.
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