Publishing hotographs of HIV +ve Children without consent

[Guest guest]

Written to the editor in protest of their Sunday Spread in Mumbai and Delhi on

AIDS orphans.

To

The Editor,

Hindustan Times,

Mumbai

Sir,

With reference to your centrespread ‘A generation orphaned’ (HT, May 13, 2007),

we wish to record our deep distress and dismay at your betrayal of all ethical

norms in approaching the issue.

Your reporter Aditya Ghosh and photographer Ritesh Uttamchandani identified the

children, published their photographs and highlighted their HIV status without

their consent, knowing fully well that children would not comprehend consent. In

such situations, the responsibility to protect their innocence and open

discussion of their HIV status lay squarely with you. This displayed your

staffers’ callousness to their plight.

What is worse, your reporter approached our field staff on the pretext of ‘doing

a story’ on the grandmothers – the caretakers - of these orphans! It is on this

false pretext that your staffers gained access to the children.

The plight of orphans of the HIV epidemic has been largely invisible in the

mainstream media. Regrettably, your effort to redress this hidden story of the

gritty survivors – which could have been a truly laudable one - has degenerated

into a voyeuristic violation of their privacy. Besides, your article robs them

of their dignity and leaves them dangerously exposed to discrimination and

stigma from insensitive quarters.

Moreover, you made no attempt to disguise their pictures or change their names

and the villages they hailed from to protect their identities. By failing to do

so, you have violated their human rights and given the go by to basic

journalistic norms that govern protection to victims.

Our organisation has worked for several years with families of those affected,

supporting their painstaking endeavour to care for and nurture these children

without taking them away from their familiar environment. Their’s is a story of

colossal dimensions – unwitting victims of an illness they are clueless about;

orphaned for reasons they cannot comprehend and stigmatised by a fearfully

ignorant society.

Yet, they - and those that support them - soldier on with a smile and with

hope. Alas, you missed this story.

In hope of sensitivity,

Meena Saraswathi Seshu

SANGRAM, Sangli.

e-mail: <meenaseshu@...>

In Solidarity, meena saraswathi seshu.

---------------------------------

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[Guest guest]

Dear all,

Re: /message/7280

This account reminds me of the filim " KAMALA " where reports bring a tribal lady

and project her in the press conference as if she is a piece of exhibition,not

a human being.

I join with meena to record my deep distress and dismay at the reporter's

betrayal of all ethical norms in approaching the issue.

Dr. Sadhu Charan Panda

Assistant Professor,

Community Medicine,

VSS Medical College, Burla- 768017,Orissa

e-mail: <sadhucmvss@...>