MxMIndia

Tag: Aarushi Talwar

  • The series starts November 26, Sundays 10pm on Star World & Hotstar

    Star World Originals to air crime documentary series on the Talwar family

    By A Correspondent

     

    We reported on Monday about the interview of Aarushi Talwar’s parents scooped on Hotstar.  It was actually a teaser to ‘The Talwars - Behind Closed Doors’, Star World’s maiden investigative crime documentary.

     

    The four-part series will air on Star World and Hotstar beginning November 26, every Sunday at 10 pm.

     

    The series has been produced in association with HBO Asia and created by executive producer Sarah MacDonald. Also associated with the project is Emmy winner Miikka Leskinen.

     

    Said a Star India spokesperson in a communique: “At Star, it has always been our endeavour to present differentiated content that strikes a chord with our audiences. We’re proud to present yet another Star World Originals production, this time in partnership with HBO Asia. The Talwars - Behind Closed Doors focuses on the destruction that one night of violence in May 2008 wreaked in the Talwar household. The series echoes the sentiment of the country on whether the pieces of the puzzle will ever fall in.”

     

    Now one wonders why the Star India spokesperson would want to remain unnamed. That’s a question which MacDonald should address next.

     

     

  • In Freaking News, which will now appear every Tuesday and Friday, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    [MJR] TV arguments that go nowhere

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Few crimes have been more astonishing and more bitterly fought over in the public domain than the murders of 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar and the domestic who worked in her home, Hemraj. Unlike the Jessica Lal murder case – where everyone know who the murderer was and the scandal was the cover-up – everything about this double murder remains open-ended four years later.

     

    The role of the media, however, came into question from day 1. it started with the intrusive and speculative reporting about Aarushi’s own life – with ridiculous segments on TV channels about how Aarushi would have celebrated her next birthday, had she been alive. Then, the initial police investigation added more grist to the rumour mill – were the parents swingers, had Aarushi and Hemraj become too close because of the parents’ activities and as a result, had the two been shut up because they knew too much? No evidence was presented to prove any of these speculations, yet the Noida police had no problem putting all these theories into the fray.

     

    Then the expected happened -various domestics were blamed. it didn’t help that Hemraj himself was blamed, by the parents as it happened. His body was found the next day since neither the police nor the family even bothered to check the whole house after the murder of the girl was discovered. His body was on the terrace – not really that far away.

     

    The media at this time, rather than focus on the salacious aspects of the case and dramatising this young girl’s life, perhaps should have put the police under the scanner for destroying evidence, for not treating the Talwar home as a crime scene and for careening between believing the Talwars implicitly to treating them as criminals.

     

    Television on Monday night revisited the Aarushi case as her mother Nupur finally appeared before a court after giving the authorities the run around for a year and was sent to jail. We have seen the Talwars presented as both victims and perpetrators. The media has taken sides and many have sided with the Talwars. The arguments presented have been sweetly naive -how can parents kill their children and neighbours say the Talwars are nice people. The dentist couple also had high profile patients like historian Patrick French who have launched a spirited defence.

     

    On NDTV, there was some soul-searching about whether the media had gone too far, Headlines Today enjoyed chasing Nupur Talwar all over Delhi and told us all about the jail she would be staying in and how she would be treated. On Times Now, we were treated to an expected fight fest. One of the lawyers for the Talwars, Pinaki Mishra, historian French, activist Ranjana Kumari and TV journalist Ashutosh Tiwari and Arnab Goswami himself slugged it out. Or rather, Mishra and French batted for the Talwars, Tiwari for the media, Kumari hardly got a chance to speak and Goswami seemed unsure whose side he was on. He did however ask why no one was bothered about the domestics who were accused at the Talwars’ behest and then let off. Mishra wanted everyone to know he was taking no money – how this impacted the case was unclear. Should his paying clients now feel that he only pays attention to cases he does free. French said that everyone said the Talwars were nice people. imagine writing a history of, say, Hitler, and then telling us many people liked him. it’s hardly a defence.

     

    The Noida police and the CBi, who really should be under the microscope, were not grilled. So one more TV argument that goes nowhere.

     

  • In Freaking News, which will now appear every Tuesday and Friday, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    [MJR] Katju rides to the rescue of the press!

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Thursday/Friday was one of those rare news cycles where TV and print appeared to agree with each other – at least when it came to the Supreme Court’s upholding the Right to Education Act and the reservation of 25 per cent of seats for the economically backward in non-government schools.

     

    Arnab Goswami of Times Now right off the bat said any opposition was elitist and demonstrated the deep rich-poor chasm in this country. This line is in keeping with his “simple living high thinking” mantra unveiled a few days ago in a debate about teenage violence. Other channels also presented the same line of thinking. This made life a little uncomfortable for those outraged that rich kiddies now had to sit next to the children of their domestics – although no one said that quite so openly, of course.

     

    Even as opponents of the idea went on about increase in fees and so on, no one quite bought it.

     

    Friday morning’s newspapers followed the same lines – with particularly vociferous arguments in favour of the RTE plan and with some tough words for those against it. For a middle class readership, it is class prejudices which are first priority and the media has certainly picked up on that without pandering to it.

     

    As the judgment sinks in, it can only be hoped that newspapers (TV cannot do it) delve deeper into the implementation of the act and keep track of what is actually going on. Sticky points include minority institutions and boarding schools which are currently exempt from this provision, what happens to a child after Class VIII and improvement of facilities in government schools.

     

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    Press Council chairman Markandey Katju has jumped on to his white horse and charged to the rescue of the freedom of the press. The Press Council is going to the Supreme Court to challenge the Allahabad High Court’s decision to stop the media from reporting on troop movement. The media, so upset has it been with the temerity of the Indian Express to carry the controversial story about fears of an army coup in some government circles, has remained largely silent on the court decision.

     

    This is an interesting maturity test for the media. Its compulsions to tailor material to reader demands and provide infotainment aside, there is also a larger role regarding the safeguarding of democracy and being a general watchdog. Patriotism in the media context does not mean bowing before every institution – it means quite the opposite.

     

    I cannot say this better than Katju himself: “…the Indian Army is not a colonial army, but the army of the Indian people who pay taxes for the entire Indian defence budget. Hence the people of India have a right to know about army affairs, except where that may compromise national security.”

     

    As Katju points out, the media has this freedom under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution.

     

    Hear hear!

     

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    The media’s role in the Aarushi Talwar murder investigation remains questionable. It has swung from one extreme to another, drawing its own conclusions, dramatising the life and death of the young girl and encouraging the investigators’ own bizarre behaviour as a result.

     

    Right now, some in the media seem to have decided that the parents of the girl are innocent and being unduly targeted. Open magazine has carried a long article by historian Patrick French claiming this (he is a patient of the dentist couple).

     

    Unfortunately for everyone concerned, the courts will base their judgment on evidence collected and presented.

     

  • This has been a trial by the media, the channels have been playing the cops, the lawyers and the judges all rolled into one. And all this only to give a ‘fresh slant’ to the story

    Anil Thakraney: What lessons have we learnt from Aarushi?

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Aarushi is back in the news. And it’s quite obvious that the media heat on the 2008

     

    Aarushi Talwar killing in Noida has kept the investigation going. Just as it happened in the Jessica Lal murder case. If the media hadn’t given so much attention to this crime, Aarushi’s X-file would most likely have been closed a long time ago. So far so good.

     

    However, the manner in which the electronic media has covered the story in the last four years has been nothing short of unfair and unethical. It’s one thing to put pressure on crime investigation; it’s another thing to break every single tenet of journalism with impunity. I recall the two extremes that were played out on the TV channels in the aftermath of the murder. On the one hand, there were the Star News reporters busy re-enacting the murder and virtually declaring that the parents were the killers. On the other hand there was Sonia Varma of NDTV in a chat show with Aarushi’s mom, not just bonding with her but making every visible effort to make the lady appear victimized. And in between these two extremes there has been a whole lot of speculation raging on, and every single news channel is guilty of it. What took the cake was the narco-analysis tests of the suspects being freely broadcast for public consumption!

     

    No, I am not saying for a second that the intentions of the anchors/reporters were motivated. But it is equally true that without realizing it, they have been sending all good journalism practices for a toss. This has been a trial by the media, the channels have been playing the cops, the lawyers and the judges all rolled into one. And all this only to give a ‘fresh slant’ to the story. This sort of a public tamasha doesn’t happen anywhere in the world media, apart from a few yellow tabloids.

     

    Click on the image for larger view

    No, after four long years, we still don’t know who killed Aarushi. Maybe we’ll never know. But thanks to an over-excitable media, many reputations have been tarnished forever. Question is: Have we learnt our lessons? I suspect not. I have a strong feeling that in the mad chase for TRPs we will make the same mistakes all over again.

     

    Sad.

     

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    PS: Fantastic press ad. Reminds me of the golden days of Trikaya andEnterprise, when the agency writers would churn out stunning prose. This advert kills all the myths that float around about press ads. That people don’t read long copy. That you have to say things straight and quick. That press ads are at best a reminder medium. All nonsense.