‘Media pressure forced the Kerala police to arrest Franco Mulakkal’
Korah Abraham, a journalist with The News Minute, shares why taking a stand was crucial while reporting on the Kerala nun case
In June 2018, a 46-year-old nun complained to the police in Kottayam, Kerala, that Franco Mulakkal, the bishop of the powerful Jalandhar diocese had raped her 13 times, between 2014 and 2016. But it wasn’t until five nuns banded together and protested for her cause in Kochi that the national media truly took notice, public pressure built up, and Mulakkal was arrested on 21 September, nearly three months after the complaint first reached the police. No longer the Jalandhar bishop, he is currently awaiting trial and is out on bail.
What has come to be known as the ‘Kerala nun rape case’ has divided public opinion in the state, where 18 per cent of the population is Christian, and monopolised headlines with its many twists and turns. What has it been like to be at the forefront of reporting on this fraught story that has widely been seen as exposing the ‘institutional rot’ in the church?
NewsTracker spoke to Korah Abraham, a young journalist with The News Minute, a Bangalore-based digital newspaper that has followed the case closely and has taken a stand in favour of the complainant. He told us why he thinks ‘objectivity’ is not always antithetical to opinion and how the media can make a difference by exerting pressure on those in power.
What has been your experience reporting on the nun rape case?
I started reporting on this case when Cardinal George Alencherry was accused of ignoring the nun’s complaint [an audio tape was released of him telling the nun to not approach the police].
As a journalist, it has been a crazy series of incidents. First, you don’t normally see women coming out, especially nuns, against a powerful bishop. Here we had a protest by nuns against their convent and against the church. It was a historic protest. Five nuns protesting until Bishop Franco Mulakkal was arrested… such a thing has never happened in India, I think.
This, along with the agitation by the Women’s Collective in Cinema (WCC) against actor Dileep for allegedly masterminding the rape of a fellow actress, was a landmark protest in the history of Kerala. Thankfully, many people came out in support, including the government, activists and journalists.
MEDIA PRESSURE, I FEEL, PUSHED THE KERALA POLICE TO REACT THE WAY IT DID. OTHERWISE, THEY MAY NOT HAVE DONE ANYTHING.
At the same time, we also got to see that Kerala — despite claiming to be very progressive and liberal in its outlook — had a set of people who supported the alleged oppressor as long as they were from the same religion or profession. People who are usually the first to say, “That guy should be hanged!” in rape cases were also the first to say, “We need proof. He’s a bishop, right?” There was victim-blaming too: “What if she’s lying? Why would a bishop do that?” The Missionaries of Jesus [of which Mulakkal was the patron] even illegally sent out a picture of the nun and tried to slut-shame her by saying she was having affairs with different men.
Even women who are not nuns find it difficult to complain after a sexual assault. Imagine how a nun would feel to talk about it. Why are the statements of the Missionaries of Jesus believable, but not what the nuns are saying?
How did you tackle that tension between who to believe in your reports? For instance, did you choose not to report the source that you did not believe? Can you tell us a bit more about the choices you made, your thought process?
We don’t say in our copies that “this is the truth, this isn’t”. But as much as possible, we try to give a voice to the people who are actually suffering. More often than not, we know who are the people who are not getting their voices heard.
In this case, right from the beginning, when you hear a voice recording of a cardinal telling a nun of consequences, you kind of know to which side it’s being tilted.
The first story that I did — we didn’t have any news story. We just had a voice recording of the cardinal, so we reported that easily. And then it built up. After this, for almost a month and a half, nothing happened. The story started picking up pace when the five nuns started protesting. We had to take the voices of the sisters. We also put up every press release that the Missionaries of Jesus released. So practically, we reported both sides. But we’ve also pointed out when a group has done something wrong.
You’ve grown up as a Christian. Would your treatment of the case have been different had the case involved another religion?
I’ve been highly critical of the bishop on all my social media. I got over the idea of blindly believing in everything the church said about one-and-a-half years ago. I never believed in putting priests on a pedestal. All the Christians who are backing Mulakkal are also vocal critics of Hindu priests who commit similar crimes. These ‘liberals in Christianity’, those who talk about women’s rights in religion, change their minds when it comes to the church.
And they say, “We stand with the church”. Standing with the nuns is also standing with the church, right? I don’t think I would have reported it differently had it happened with a Hindu priest. Expectedly, I got a lot of backlash for my reports in this case and the Sabarimala case. In fact, my colleague was assaulted when she was reporting on Sabarimala. She was 20km away from Sabarimala on a public road! Who can stop a journalist from doing their work? And what were these men saying? “We don’t blame the journalists but the editors should have taken the precaution of not sending women journalists here”. Why can’t the mob or the devotees be blamed for what they did instead?
Do you think you might have expressed more opinions in the Kerala nun case than you would have normally?
The editorial board of The News Minute (TNM) has given us the leeway to be angry in our pieces. We are told, report the facts but express your anger if the story makes you angry. They’ve told me, “You’re a young man, be strong, show your anger in your copies”. They’ve given me that platform to express my emotions in my work.
WE WILL ALWAYS BE THE VOICE OF THE VICTIMS, NOT THE ASSAULTERS.
Earlier, mainstream channels kept taking quotes from the bishop. His version? “I am innocent”. Does anyone expect him to say he committed the crime? Why give him a platform to proclaim himself as an innocent man? If he is innocent, let the court prove him so. Why does the media have to give him, and people like MLA PC George [a politician who called the nun a “prostitute”], a platform? TNM will always be the voice of the victims, not the assaulters.
What about objectivity while reporting?
Depends on which school of journalism you’re from. Some might say that we are nobody to call a man who gropes a woman a ‘pervert’. But my editor-in-chief taught me that if there’s CCTV proof that a man groped a woman, we can call him a pervert.
Many news outlets try their best to remain objective, even if there is strong visual evidence against the accused.
The school of journalism that thinks objectivity is the boss is dying. Now, with social media, the roles of journalism have changed. Now, everyone with a mobile phone can be a reporter of news — they may be at the site before an actual journalist gets there. How do we stand out in the sea of opinions?
As long as I’m only writing what happened and not fabricating anything, I can show my anger. I can say things like, “Four days on, the accused has still not been arrested.” The tone of the story conveys that the story is questioning the police department’s delay in action.
Then according to the tilt of your story, you choose the people you want to give voice to. The victim’s mother, the wife of the guy who died — they’ll all be criticising the police but these are not your words. You are quoting people.
In the bishop rape case, we spoke to the nun’s sister, the protesting nuns, the social activists and those who supported the nuns. You know our stand clearly — we are for the nuns. Even for the WCC story — we stood with the collective.
When the media uses the name and photo of the accused, are they subjecting him to a media trial even before he has appeared in court?
As long as we aren’t passing judgement on him, I don’t think so. But now that you ask me, I’m not so sure myself!
What role do you think the media played in the nun rape case?
I think the right kind of media attention can really help. During the high court protest, the media put pressure on the Kerala police to bring the bishop to Kerala. Media pressure, I feel, pushed the Kerala police to react the way it did. Otherwise, they may not have done anything. The way a case is covered makes all the difference.
Do you think pressure from the media can make a significant difference?
Right. I personally feel that the media needs to keep putting pressure. That’s why it is called the fourth pillar of democracy. The media does make a difference. Media pressure was what forced actor Mohanlal to ask rape-accused Dileep to resign from the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA). Everything that people in power do these days is for the media.
IF THERE’S CCTV PROOF THAT A MAN GROPED A WOMAN, WE CAN CALL HIM A PERVERT.
There was a time when the role of news outlets was to pass information from the government to the people — for example, Doordarshan. Now that is no longer the case. The media has the power to criticise, be the voice of the people. When Arnab Goswami or Rahul Shivshankar get PM Modi to speak to them, they can ask them important questions. Only when you have a powerful press can you make an accountable government.
What are the challenges of reporting on sexual violence?
TNM is very gender-sensitive in reporting; they gave us a big list of guidelines to follow while interviewing and writing our stories — how to interview LGBTQ individuals, how to interview victims of sexual harassment, etc. TNM has been very vocal about dealing with sexual harassment the right way — we have an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and all employees, journalists and blue-collar staff alike, were given training on sexual harassment in the workplace. They make you aware, they give you the tools to deal with it.
In a lot of offices, even newsrooms, people haven’t even heard of an ICC.
With #MeToo bringing down several top journalists, someone should bring this up! Or TNM should report about the newsrooms that talk about ICCs but don’t have one themselves!
Not many people know what an ICC is or who should even be on it. TNM had put up a video recently about ICC and what constitutes sexual harassment — it clears it up for people who may say verbal abuse isn’t sexual harassment.
This is part of a series of articles that NewsTracker published from 25 November to 10 December as part of the #16Days activism, aligned with the UN’s International Day for Ending Violence Against Women. This piece was published on Day 6.
