DUJ gender council rejects Vayalar Ravi apology

Scoop News February 16, 2013

New Delhi, February 16 (Scoop News) – The Gender Council of the Delhi Union of Journalists condemns the attempt by Union Minister Vayalar Ravi to browbeat a young woman reporter who asked him some questions regarding the Suryanelli rape case. The Minister’s aggressive counter questions to TV journalist Aishwarya Sumithran, were both personal and sexist. His apology that the remark was a jest and that the journalist is like a granddaughter to him is in itself patronizing.

The Gender Council deplores the hectoring, patronizing and sexist tone adopted by the Minister in speaking to this local reporter in his home constituency of Alapuzha. When Sumithran had asked for his reactions to the alleged involvement of Rajya Sabha deputy leader P.J. Kurien in the rape case, Minister Ravi in turn alleged that she had something personal against the Congress leader. “Did he do something to you?” he asked in Malayalam. Both the language used and the body language of the Minister (caught on camera) is objectionable.

The DUJ Gender Council congratulates Kerala’s women journalists, particularly the Kerala chapter of the Network of Women in Media, for taking up the issue. DUJ firmly believes that the dignity and rights of women in the media must be protected, so that they can work shoulder to shoulder with their male colleagues in the profession.

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