Jaariyaa: Handle With Care

The recent ̶ or more appropriately, the ongoing ̶ scandal concerning a so-called 'Jaariyaa' claimed to be living in a Malé house has brought a glaring, critical issue regarding Maldivian journalism to the forefront of journalistic ethics. It is an issue that we have been ignoring for a long time. And, it seems, we are adamant on keeping on doing just that!

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.

History is written by the victor - Winston Churchill

In this case victors are those who write history.

How many times have you heard on the media statements like, 'You can't change the history', 'History bears witness to such and such'? I bet you heard it a lot, and I bet that lately, you heard it being said a lot by Arabs.

Well, to all of those who are silly enough to keep on dreaming that 'History will bear witness to our rights or suffering or that we were not murderers but victims', it's time to wake up. History is written by the victors. And in this day and age of mass media, victory is all about being able and daring to write history the way you like. A history that will highlight that you have rights. That you have suffered. That you are not the murderers but the victims.

History is not about what actually happened. It's about what and how much people remember from what happened. So if you want to write history, you have to make sure that people remember the happenings the way you like them to remember. Unfortunately, in many of the struggles by the weak and the wretched, the question of survival overpowers the question of history. In the end, many a people's stories are lost to the tales of the past.

Yes, you're right about what I'm getting at with all this talk. The Palestinian struggle is long past the stage where it has become a struggle for a place in History. Zionists have managed to legitimize their state on lands that belong to the Palestinians. If the Palestinians want to legitimize their claim on their homeland now, the land of their fathers and forefathers, they have to more than fight the aggressors.

People seem to be forgetting about how this struggle started. Many people think that the Israelis were living peacefully in their own homes when the Palestinians came out of no where and started rocketing them. Israel has managed to highlight the small amount of deaths and casualties they've had on their side (compared to the deaths and wounds suffered by the Palestinians) so much that the hundreds of thousands of Muslim and Arab deaths at the hands of Zionists starting from long before the establishment of the state of Israel seem to get diminished. People today don't know about the Palestinian people who were murdered raped and intimidated out of their homes when Zionists established a state for themselves in their land. Truth be told few people know the true extent of the atrocities carried out by the Zionists against the people of Palestine.

I've heard many people wonder, 'Why won't Hamas just stop fighting? Why don't they just accept the existence of Israel especially since they've gained legitimacy through United Nations?' And I wonder how many of those people know that the Palestinian refugees come from not only towns and villages within the Gaza Strip and whatever is left of the West Bank after the illegal Israeli settlements. Where do they expect those people to return. I also wonder how many of those people have known about Mr. Khalid Mish'al's interviews with different newscasters since 2006, I believe, in which he has said that a the Hamas movement could accept a peace deal under which a Palestinian state will be established within 1967 borders. Have they heard about the same offer being made by Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud Zafar. I wonder if they know that Hamas adhered to the last truce despite being put under an economic blockade until Israel broke that truce in early November.

The truth is, they don't know. And most people don't have the time to try to find out. If you are struggling for a cause, and if you want to establish your rights, and if you want public support, it's not enough to simply fight with weaponry for that cause. People are busy. And people want the information to be at their doorstep when the collect the newspaper every morning. People want the information to be a click away when they decide to watch the news.

The truth is, Zionists do that. They provide whatever fabrications they want people to believe at people's doorsteps. On their TVs. On their PCs when they browse the internet. While writing this blog, I wanted to know the number of Palestinians killed before 1967 and I typed in 'palestine; massacres; before 1967' in the Google search engine. The first site on the list reads 'List of attacks against Israeli civilian before 1967'. They provide their stories and people accept them.

Unfortunately, from the other side of the conflict, the PR is not so great. The current PR strategy seems to be the Palestinian internal conflicts. Believe me, it's not helping the Palestinian image. Many people are just sick and tired of it. So first things first: Someone has to broker a Palestinian unity plan. And in the mean time, someone has to write history. Educate people about the Palestinian suffering. Raise awareness. And that's not the duty of Palestinians alone. Every single person among us who claim to sympathize with the Palestinian cause, it's the least we can do!

History is written by the victor. And in this race for people's minds and hearts, victory is defined by who dares to write history.