Dear ET, Try keeping it confidential !

Media in Pakistan has played a great role in bringing out issues that otherwise would have remained hidden to the public eye. Many a poor and disadvantaged have found donors to help them out just because of reports published and broadcasted by our media. 

 

That being said, an important consideration that is often overlooked is, confidentiality.

Should I put this person’s name in my report who is suffering from illness which might cause him embarrassment in his public life? Should I identify this person in my article which might make him vulnerable to slurs? These are the questions which any responsible journalist must ask before publishing reports on issues relating to gender, sexuality, health and abuse. In Pakistan specifically, it is essential for a journalist to guard a victim/patient/gender’s identity due to the fact that we as a society still live in the seventh century when it comes to recognizing LGBT rights, stigmatizing rape victims and gossiping about a person’s illness. Can a person with a sexual disease ever come out without being judged and comments passed on him/her because of imagined sexual indulgences? Can a rape victim come out in the open without being told that the DNA evidence in her/his case is unacceptable according to Council of Islamic Ideology? In a country where 60% of the people surveyed, would not like to be friends with a transgender, a journalist must make his/her top priority not to reveal names when doing reports on these kind of stories. The 5-year old girl raped in Lahore should never have been named in the first place, but ratings and sensationalism continue to have a vice like grip on our media. 

 

Recently I came across a story published on ET regarding a girl in Abbottabad diagnosed with “ambiguous genitalia”- a birth defect which effects sexual growth in a person. Although it is not a disease but due to the birth defect it is hard to ascertain the sex of a person based on outside appearance of genitalia.  The girl’s father is poor and cannot afford to pay for the surgery (costing RS.200, 000) and five medical tests (costing Rs. 35,000) that would be required to fully transform her into a girl. 

 

It would be a good thing if, due to the report, that girl’s father gets the donations so that the she can receive proper medical attention. That’s the good part. But, what about the behavior of the society after her identity has been revealed? Who can guarantee that she wouldn’t be a victim to slurs because of her medical condition? Wouldn’t this report make her vulnerable to ridicule by her class mates? Neighbors? Did the reporter who filed the story think about the impact of this story?

Industrialist and social activist Majyd Aziz remarked:

 

“Pragmatic way would have been to identify the kid with an initial, request well known person to spearhead collections. People tend to remember negative aspects. Moreover, child would be ridiculed by class-fellows. Family may be mocked too”.

 

Writer and poet Sarah B Gillani called this “absolutely wrong”. 

 

Hence I call upon the concerned editorial staff at ET to remove the child’s name from the story and kindly enable the practice of protecting the confidentiality of such cases in the future. While let us all hope that in the future that no Pakistani is judged based on gender, sexual orientation and religious beliefs.

The Cuckoo's Calling : Book Review

The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith was doing an OK business (1500 copies sold since April) until it was leaked that the crime novel was actually written by none other than JK. Rowling herself !

The leak propelled the novel to number 1 and reprints were ordered. Her fans (including me) went into ecstasy found only in the seventh heaven and did all that we could to get our hands on The Cuckoo’s Calling.

As it turned out, the book didn’t disappoint at all. Although JK Rowling has expressed her anger because she didn’t want her false-identity as RobertGalbraith to be leaked to the media. According to her she enjoyed the liberating experience of writing under a pseudonym without any hype and expectations.

The Cuckoo’s Calling is crime-detective novel featuring Cormoran Strike as a private detective who has been hired to investigate the apparent suicide of super model Lula Landry. Together with his newly hired secretary Robin, Cormoran has to navigate through the dazzling world of fashion, paparazzi and waddle across the murky marshes of destitution, drugs, alcoholism, and racism. This is a novel that brings surprises at every turning, but not without some diligent detective work by Cormoran Strike, which to some readers might get a bit tedious to read.

The chemistry between Cormoran and Robin develops wonderfully but leaves a lot to be desired. Good news is that Robert Galbraith (JKR) already has completed the second book, in what appears to be a series.

Essentially, the book is a continuation of JK Rowling’s crusade against media hacks, paparazzi, and the snobbish elites of the society. Exploitation of individuals who are misunderstood by the society is a major theme in the novel. For example, Evan Duffield who is Lula Landry’s boyfriend is believed by nearly all characters in the novel to be a spoilt, drug addled human being but later he is revealed to be complex character who is as much susceptible to human fallibilities as any other person and who is misunderstood by majority of the people around him.

One thing that is becoming the hallmark of her novels is her embracing of the populist theme. That is something to which the reader from the lower classes of the society can easily relate to, no matter which country he/she may belong to. The depiction of the mutual disgust which both the rich and the poor have for each other is well written. The novel’s strongest moments in my view come when detective Cormoran Strike interacts with an impecunious mother who has to give up her child for adoption in a rich family so that the child can have a better future. JK Rowling it seems has a well-entrenched revulsion against the apathetic hereditary rich and those who get rich on the corpses of others. This loathing has been there in all the seven Harry Potter novels (Malfoys) and TheCasual Vacancy (the Mollisons) and now has spilled into her 9^th novel has well. 

But aside from politics and directing the odium against the useless waste of human intelligence which we normally call celebrity journalism, JK Rowling’s novel is a fantastic read. Despite the information overload in some parts of the novel, the plot development is well paced and you feel that the curtain on the villain will be lifted at the very end of the novel in a dramatic fashion and all mysteries will be resolved.

Though there is nothing spectacular about the novel, as the crime genre has been well trodden before, the book will find its way to your bookshelf but probably not on your favorite books list.