The story of the Jaariya first saw the light of day on the blogosphere. Call me crazy, but I think it was more of an offhand reference to the 'effect of allowing the Islamic extremists have a say around here' than it was an article of genuine concern for the fate of a child living in sexual abuse. And it seems, at least to me, that the girl only caught anybody's attention only when she became a political human canon.
But now, the girl seems to have gotten more attention than anybody ever deserves. She has been zeroed in on, slandered, and publicly embarrassed in front of the whole country. On top of all that, there are rumours that this may even be the wrong girl!!
What's really shocking here is the responsibility with which the Maldivian media has handled this case. It seems that for the Maldivian media this was just another story to write, another bit of information to be shared with the public. It seems that the Maldivian media is in more than a bit of confusion as to where to draw the line between the public's right to know and the private citizen's right to privacy.
I don't want to point fingers here. But, while it is inarguable that Haveeru newspaper and website has been a completely reliable source to bring straight-out-of-the-oven fresh news to every Maldivian's doorstep, I think it's indisputable they sometimes over do it. This is one instance when they went way over board. Haveeru, in this case, was acting more like a tabloid than a respectable, responsible, and professional journalistic institution.
Let's move away from abstracts and shed a little light on definitive issues:
One, in their coverage of the case, Haveeru failed terribly in protecting the identity of the alleged victim. This girl was the subject of an ongoing investigation into child abuse. Either she was a victim of child abuse, whose identity should be protected by all journalistic ethical standards; or she was not a victim who happened to be questioned as the result of a false lead, in which case she would not want to be called a 'Jaariyaa' on national media. But Haveeru reporters went forward and wrote that the 'Jaariyaa' was the 17 year old sister of a man currently in jail for his involvement in the Himandhoo unrest in 2007, and she was living in a house in Maafannu. How many people have been charged and convicted for their involvement in the Himandhoo unrest? How many of them happen to have 17-year-old sisters? And just how many of those girls happen to be living in Maafannu?
Two, for a reputed newspaper, Haveeru presented a rather one-sided report on this one. And one tainted with one too many prejudices, too. "Now that the 'Jaariyaa' has been pinpointed, let us tell you more about her: She's believed to have been sexually abused. She's now married to a young guy. But she was six-months pregnant when she was found. But we found out, through a very reliable source whom we cannot disclose, she was married to her current husband in India, during July 2009. (We're going to leave it to you to make the assumption that she was married to a man her age in order to cover up her sexual abuse after she was two months pregnant.) The Police has no comments regarding the case at the moment, btw!!"
What on God's sweet earth are they trying to say? And since Haveeru reporters seem to know who she is, where she lives, and whom she lives with, why have they not contacted her, or someone related to her, to get their side of the story? Especially since they've not managed to get a comment from the Police.
When the girl's family decided to contact the media, what they claimed was that she entered into a marriage with a guy a year older than her out of her own free will. That they were married in India, yes. But July was the month in which the couple applied to register their marriage in Maldivian courts as opposed to being the month in which they got married.
Yes, they could very well be lying. She could have been two months pregnant when she was married. She could even have been subjected to sexual abuse. But it's unjustifiable, if not criminal, to charge, try, and convict someone in the media, and sentence him or her to an undoubted future of public scrutiny and humiliation.
Media personnel throughout Maldives are calling for the decriminalisation of defamation. For more freedoms to be given to the press. The truth is, though, that ̶ as it has been clearly demonstrated in this case ̶ freedom given to an irresponsible person to handle critical information relating to others is a very dangerous thing.
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