Coverage of Monika Ghurde Case is ‘Crass’ & ‘Insensitive’: Readers

Many readers, especially women, complain highlighting that Monica’s body was found ‘naked’ wasn’t necessary.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@chandu532)

Monica Ghurde, a renowned perfumer, was found dead at her residence in a village in Goa. Most newspapers, news channels and digital portals mentioned ‘naked body found’ in their headlines. The details of where and how she was tied were written at length in some newspapers. ‘She was raped’, declared local media without any confirmation.

Readers have strongly objected to the choice of words and have questioned if there are biases in the media against women. Many of them took to social media to slam news organisations for writing explicit details to make the copy ‘sensational’. Here are some of the reactions on Facebook:

Sarina questions who writes these headlines and articles and why certain words are chosen.

Marius feels that the graphic details could have been avoided while Ruam finds the choice of words insensitive.

Sunder Ramu says that journalists should consider the fact that people close to the deceased person would also read the news story and that they could be hurt with sensational language.

Many news organisations across the globe use aggressive, graphic language to grab eyeballs or readers. Monika Ghurde’s body was found without clothes is a fact. Whether to highlight that fact or not is a subjective, editorial call. Whether highlighting that is right or wrong is again a subjective, debatable topic.