The Women in Cinema Collective, an outfit of women professionals working in the Malayalam film industry, on Monday wrote an open letter to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking his intervention to protect the privacy of women who have deposed in front of the Justice K Hema Committee.
In the letter posted on its official FB page, the outfit alleged that a private Malayalam television channel is telecasting reports based on the purported statements given by the women film professionals before the government-appointed panel.
The WCC said they were now witnessing a situation in which those statements were being dragged to an “irresponsible media trial’ by the television channel.
It further said that the telecasting of the private statements given by the survivors raises suspicion about the intention of at least some people who have access to the Committee report.
The news reports were being aired in a manner in which people could identify the survivors easily, the outfit detailed.
“The invasion of privacy is unjust," the WCC said in the letter. Stating that the channel reports have caused mental distress to the survivors, the outfit also strongly urged the CM to intervene in the matter to stop this “news attack" against the privacy of women.
The Justice K Hema Committee was constituted by the Kerala government after the 2017 actress assault case and its report revealing instances of harassment and exploitation of women in the Malayalam cinema industry.
Following the allegations of sexual harassment and exploitation cropping up against several actors and directors in the wake of the report being made public, the state government on August 25 announced the establishment of a seven-member special investigation team to probe them.
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