Women journos in conflict: Welcome to the Velvet Revolution
If a man and a woman were caught in a danger zone, the former was more likely to be eliminated.
“How many people know Malini Subramaniam's story?” asked journalist Nupur Basu, after her film, Velvet Revolution, premiered in Bengaluru last week. A deeply insightful, gripping look at the lives of women journalists in conflict, the film was screened at the Indian Institute of Human Settlements, in an auditorium packed well beyond capacity. Still, no more than five hands were raised. Subramaniam, who was awarded with an International Press Freedom Awards, worked out of Bastar, a hostile, Naxal ridden region of Chhattisgarh. As the film reveals, she was forced to leave town, fearing the safety of her teenage daughter. “I did not want to be a war correspondent... but the war came to my door-step,” says award winning Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim, who lives in exile in Turkey.
Journalists are, perhaps, prone to unconventional life choices, says Basu, whose mild manner belies her impassioned, 35-year-long career as a journalist. “The job requires a certain amount of fearlessness. Even so, we are dependent on the support of the democracy for our lives, for what we do.”
Basu unravels, through the stories of five women reporters from the battlefields of Syria and war torn Afghanistan, to the caste struggles of a group of Dalit journalists, that conflict has many faces. “It's one thing to be killed in crossfire in a warzone and another completely to be hunted down,” Darshana Ramdev reports...
How did the film come about?
The International Association of Women in Radio and Television, a loose network of women in radio, television and film - I'm a former board member of the India chapter - has been making collaborative documentaries for the last three years. This year, they decided on women in media and the changing workplace environment of course I hopped on board as Executive Producer!
What makes Velvet Revolution so critical in today's socio-political setting?
The rising attacks on women journalists, of course. Earlier, there was a red line that people just wouldn’t cross. If a man and a woman were caught in a danger zone, the former was more likely to be eliminated. With women, the attitude was, “Let's rape her and send her back.” They stopped themselves from the final act. That has changed. Killed in crossfire in the midst of a warzone is one kind of death. Being hunted down for your views is quite another. I thought at first about dealing with journalists in the workplace issues like the pay parity for men and women continue to exist but this is far more unnerving.
What brought about this shift?
Today, we're at risk of being killed for what we say or believe. This comes from both state and non-state players more and more regimes are becoming dictatorial. You agree with them or else.. There's no point saying, “It doesn't happen here.” It does. You have state and non-state players, examples of the latter of course include the Taliban and ISIS or even Hindutva groups.
Why focus on women journalists in particular? Speaking out is dangerous for men and women alike...
Women face a two-pronged attack. Physical assaults and online trolls. Female journalists wake up to threats of rape and warnings issued against their children. This is what we deal with everyday, but we keep coming back. Tongam Rina, the associate editor of the Arunachal Times was shot at in 2012 for her coverage of mining scams in the region. She escaped with injuries and six months later, returned to her former post. That's the kind of grit and determination we possess - we do this because we can't imagine doing anything else.
Velvet Revolution veers away from traditional interpretations of conflict, going from the coverage of war-ridden nations to writing about corruption in an apparent democracy...
You don't need to go to Afghanistan looking for violence anymore. I wanted to address the here and now and it's happening all around us. In India, you can get beaten up outside the Supreme Court. The team of Dalit women who run Navodhaya, in Andhra Pradesh, focus on the injustices of the caste system. Still, they aren't allowed into the homes of the upper caste members they attempt to interview. This happens even today we all know Rohith Vemula's story. We have a section that looks at the Panama Papers as well – now it's not a warzone either, it's about covering corruption.
Attacks aside, journalists are perceived with a certain degree of suspicion by the masses they seem to be blamed for the partisanship that is so prevalent across society...
There is a growing divide, yes, between journalists and civil society. Modern day journalism, of course, is increasingly defined by getting information on the phone or through online platforms - I heard in a conference recently that nearly 70% of stories are generated on social media. The public also looks upon us as corporatised and partisan - Newspapers try to keep the balance, but television channels have gone haywire. People see these partisan politics play out everyday and cannot discern the facts. So they choose the anchor whose voice matches theirs, resulting in a polarised society. All this is very harmful for democracy and that's what I've tried to reach out to people to say, through this film. Look at these women, at the fire in their bellies. They refused to do anything else. They're dedicated, gritty and they're not compromised.