When I was watching a report on the brawl between Air India cabin crew and pilots, I noticed a very peculiar behaviour of the media? Why is that the media always wants to publish the photo or show a video of the "victim" girl? Why don't they publish the photo of the person accused of rape? It's always a blurred image of the girl. Is it because a female figure attracts attention of males?


In this Time Now video of the Air India "molested" air hostess when she went to filed a complaint before the National Commission for Women, the identity of the 24-year-old can be easily established. I would certainly identify her if I happen to her anywhere. Who cares? (An earlier report had blurred the face of the air hostess.) A 24-year-old air hostess does add a lot of oomph to media. [And that's why you see a huge brigade of beautiful new anchors on television channels.]

The video is also a documentation of electronic media's way of functioning. When the air hostess starts saying something, a voice (most probably some reporter or cameraman) interrupts: "Wahin bolena chahiye tha na...apko." (You should have said this there itself...)

Then someone asks her to halt for a moment and then start over again. "Ek minute madam...ek minute." "Are transfer le lena." Someone objects to the voice. In all this din, the word transfer is the loudest. For those who don't know how TV news channels function, "transfer" refers to getting some footage from other news channel's staff. It is often used as a way of getting access to some regular event that the staff of one channel fails to cover on its own.