Complaint
This article about a controversial rape and murder case in Lakhimpur included the following passage: “Six men have been arrested for the gang rape and murder of the girls.  One of them is a neighbour and the remaining five are Muslims from a nearby villageâ€. A reader queried the mention of the five men’s 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’s Muslim faith. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s Editorial Guidelines on Harm and Offence with particular reference to Portrayal.
Outcome
The relevant Guidelines say “In some instances, references to disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identification, faith, race, etc may be relevant to portrayal.  However, we should avoid careless or offensive stereotypical assumptions and people should only be described in such terms when editorially justifiedâ€. 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. The ECU therefore took the view that there was insufficient editorial justification for the original mention of the men’s religion. It also considered that the first amendment to the article, which consisted of adding the words “although it's not believed to be a religious crime†could well have caused readers to question why the Muslim faith had been mentioned at all. 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