Screening rape: India’s debate

In December 2012, the story of a horrific gang rape in India’s capital New Delhi caught global attention. More than two years on, India and the issue of rape are back in the headlines – a direct result of the government’s ban on a BBC documentary called India’s Daughter.

Directed by British filmmaker Leslee Udwin, the documentary retells the story of the gang rape and features interviews with one of the rapists and his lawyers. The film was meant to air in India on the NDTV network on March 8, 2015 – International Women’s Day. The government banned the broadcast, declaring it an insult to victim of the rape and defamatory to India’s public image.

In our lead story this week, we analyse the debate that has exploded over this film in India, the government’s censorship and the painful discussion about rape in India. Speaking to us for this report are Leslee Udwin director of India’s Daughter; Professor of Social Science, Shiv Visvanathan; co-founder of the website Newslaundry, Abhinandan Sekhri; and from the All India’s Progressive Women’s Association, Kavita Krishnan.

Other media stories on our radar this week: In Greece the recently elected Syriza coalition government drafted a proposal to the parliament that could see the country’s state broadcaster ERT back on the air. Authorities in Ethiopia have been accused of spying on journalists working for ESAT, an independent channel operating offshore. And the collaboration of international journalists that broke the HSBC tax avoidance story could end up claiming casualties in the British media establishment.

Kremlin’s troll army

In our feature, Nic Muirhead reports on the online offensive being conducted at the Kremlin’s behest.

In comments sections of news websites inside and outside Russia, paid online trolls are skewing the debate, overwhelming the discussion so much that some outlets – like The Moscow Times – have shut down their comments sections.

Are these online activists in the pay of the Russian government or are followers of Russian news just incredibly vocal online? We speak to Tanya Lokot, editor of RuNet Echo; from Dozhd TV editor-in-chief Ilya Klishin; former Kremlin advisor Alexander Nekrassov; and Floriana Fossato, an Internet expert.

Sticking with the theme of information wars, we end this week’s show with a very different approach to the divide from university students in Russia and Ukraine. Across video sharing sites, students on both sides are speaking to each other – busting myths, representing their perspectives and trying to build an understanding by circumventing the rhetoric of politicians and the narratives of traditional media. We have selected two videos and edited them together to give you a sense of the discussion online.