The Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), an advocacy group that champions women’s rights and equality of sexes in the Malayalam film industry, in a letter to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said that the victims who had opened up before the Hema Committee are being subjected to an irresponsible media trial by a TV channel.
The WCC said the victims are subjected to the unscrupulous media witch-hunt ever since the statements they had given before the panel in confidence were brought within the scope of the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
In the letter, the WCC singled out a Malayalam television news channel for allegedly conducting a trial by media based on cherry-picked information, insinuations and innuendos, which the WCC feared could potentially reveal the identity of the survivors who braved personal and professional odds to testify before the committee.
The information released is such that the outside world can identify who the informants are, the WCC said.
“The information leaks are planned in such a way that it is easy to recognise the victims who had made these statements. This is causing immense mental strain for the victims and had put their lives in jeopardy,” the WCC said in the letter.
The WCC said that such an unprincipled onslaught on privacy is unjust and urged the Chief Minister to urgently intervene to set things right.
The Kerala government constituted the Justice Hema Committee to study the issues faced by women in the Malayalam film industry following a petition filed by the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) in 2017.
The Committee submitted its report to the government in 2019,but the government declined to make it public despite several requests under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act).
On July 5, the State Information Commission directed the disclosure of the report after redacting certain portions.
The decision was challenged in the Kerala High Court by film producer Sajimon Parayil.The High Court on August 13, dismissed his petition.
Following the High Court order, the Kerala government released the report of Justice K Hema Committee, which examined the challenges faced by women in the Malayalam film industry on August 19.