A 23-year-old IT professional, Mitali Sharma, was found dead in a drain in Zirakpur, three days after she went missing. Her body was wrapped in plastic and had signs of assault. While the police have arrested the accused Sultan Mohammad, Raj, Amandeep, and Rohit Kumar, her kidnapping and murder have sparked outrage amongst the people, and especially on social media. Former Bollywood actress and No More Tears NGO founder Somy Ali has questioned the media about their limited coverage on such a devastating issue.
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She said, "If these newspapers, magazines, and online forums can’t even spare a page or a single conversation about what happened to this young girl, they have no right to be called the media. Media is there to make us aware of good and bad, and not rubbish like SK will be attending IPL. Are you kidding me? That’s their front-page news while a girl was murdered and thrown in a drain. Not just her parents, but India too lost a daughter, and India needs to prioritise within the media sector what should and shouldn’t be astronomical in terms of giving awareness on their media platforms."
"These perpetrators will be put on bond in no time and repeat the same crime because India is reading about IPL and One Direction. It’s sickening to no end. And sadly this will continue as no one who has a voice will take a few minutes out to do a public service announcement on what’s taking place relevant to the rapes and murders of little girls and boys," she added.
She then questions the Bollywood celebrities about their take on such issues that have become rampant in the country. She said, "At least Aamir (Khan) had a talk show which covered important issues. What have Shah Rukh (Khan) and Salman (Khan) done? Female celebrities like Tabu, Raveena, and the younger lot?"
She added, "This should be the headline; online forums should be inundated with this news, not inane garbage about events celebrities are going to be attending or even today writing tabloid-type trashy and crass articles about celebrities and their affairs." She further asked about the progression within the media and said that she also holds a master’s in broadcast journalism degree, and therefore it is incomprehensible to her that the media forums are not talking about Mitali but IPL. "This is our daughter. India’s daughter, my father’s daughter and my grandparents’ daughter. I want to question the media about your ethics and what you choose to write about and don’t. Grow some moral audacity and look at what’s taking place with boys and girls being raped and murdered in the city and the rural areas of India. Are you all that starved and starstruck? This is pathetic, and I am highly disillusioned by what the media chooses to cover," she said.
"Not much has changed since the 90s; in fact, it’s worse now due to social media platforms. Everyone is a journalist, having not stepped a foot in a university which teaches journalism. Everyone has a podcast and are self-proclaimed journalists. This makes me sick to my stomach. No awareness and no accountability. This will go on and on without any consequences. Do you even know the statistics of what happens in villages to little girls and boys? They are sodomised daily and murdered, then left in a canal to die," Somy ended.