Dr Nayema Tasnim is the Health Media Analyst of Bangladesh Media Monitor.
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Recently, inconsistencies have been observed in the behavior of the media and, in some cases, hospital authorities during consecutive rape incidents across the country, which have violated the victims’ right to privacy. At the same time, broadcasting the victims’ identities, including their names and ages, in the media is creating a risk of insecurity for the victims and their families.
By disclosing the identity of a four-year-old child rape victim in Bakalia, Chittagong, the Director of Chittagong Medical College Hospital has violated the personal privacy of a patient under treatment. Similarly, a leading media outlet like Jamuna Television should have exercised greater caution in broadcasting this information. I hope that in the future, if a victim of rape or attempted rape is undergoing hospital treatment, both hospital authorities and the media will remain cautious about broadcasting their personal information, out of safety concerns and from a sensitive perspective.
Secondly, some media outlets and online pages are not hesitating to ask inappropriate questions to the young classmates of the deceased Ramisa, solely to boost their views, which are questions entirely unsuited to their age. I believe that asking such baseless questions to these students, who are already overwhelmed with grief after brutally losing their classmate, poses a severe risk to their mental health. Such insensitive behavior from media professionals is unacceptable in this cruel situation. In this brutally painful event, responsible behavior is expected from the journalists of all print, electronic, and online portals in the country, considering the mental state of the victim’s family and her young classmates.
Ultimately, the commercialization of tragedy at the expense of a victim’s privacy and a child’s psychological well-being highlights a critical need for ethical reform. Media houses and medical institutions must prioritize human dignity over viewership and sensationalism by enforcing strict ethical codes. Protecting vulnerable individuals, especially traumatized children, must remain the paramount responsibility of both journalists and authorities in times of crisis.