Complaint
This article about a controversial rape and murder case in Lakhimpur included the following passage: 鈥Six men have been arrested for the gang rape and murder of the girls. 聽One of them is a neighbour and the remaining five are Muslims from a nearby village鈥.聽 A reader queried the mention of the five men鈥檚 religion in a context where its connection to the story was not apparent, and objected to the implication that the crime may have been motivated by the men鈥檚 Muslim faith. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the 麻豆社鈥檚 Editorial Guidelines on Harm and Offence with particular reference to Portrayal.
Outcome
The relevant Guidelines say 鈥In some instances, references to disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identification, faith, race, etc may be relevant to portrayal. 聽However, we should avoid careless or offensive stereotypical assumptions and people should only be described in such terms when editorially justified鈥.聽 Subsequent amendments to the article made clear that, despite speculation to the contrary by some Indian politicians and in sections of the Indian media, the crime was not believed by the police to have a religious element.聽 The ECU therefore took the view that there was insufficient editorial justification for the original mention of the men鈥檚 religion.聽 It also considered that the first amendment to the article, which consisted of adding the words 鈥although it's not believed to be a religious crime鈥 could well have caused readers to question why the Muslim faith had been mentioned at all.聽 However, a later amendment which explained that it reflected the speculation mentioned above provided the necessary editorial justification and sufficed to resolve the issue of complaint.
Resolved