TV9 Hyderabad's evil exposé

Yesterday, TV9 Hyderabad's YouTube channel uploaded a video of a slanderouos, maligned news story titled "Gay culture rampant in Hyderabad." Apparently, undercover reporters from TV9 went to a gay party and covered it. They also created a fake profile on PlanetRomeo.com and called some of its users and recorded the conversations that they had with them. These were used along with private pictures of users on PlanetRomeo.

The LGBT community in India has united and has condemned these actions by the TV channel. The YouTube video has been flagged and YouTube has taken in down, and although I'm sure that this video will be uploaded at other locations soon, it is a positive step in protesting against the channel which has invaded the privacy of innocent people. The latest on the news story is that one student who was exposed in the news story has committed suicide. I don't have any official confirmation for the same.

Apparently, as a knee-jerk reactions, hundreds of members of PlanetRomeo have deleted/moved profiles and taken off their photos from the site. LGBT community members in Mumbai are planning a peaceful protest at the TV9 office in Mumbai on Friday. This will be against the ridiculous story run by the TV9 Telugu division. The details will be posted soon.

Please help the community in protesting against this serious issue of invasion of privacy. Thank you!

What you can do:
  • Flag video/copies of the story online
  • Write to the TV channel
  • Express solidarity to our friends from Hyderabad
    • By talking about this on various social media platforms
    • By changing your FaceBook profile picture to a picture which displays protest to TV9
    • By changing your Planet Romeo profile to "Hyderabad" and post your pictures on it
  • Join the community in our peaceful protest against TV9 on Friday evening at TV9's office (Details on my next post)
Please do as much as you can. Let this be a movement to prevent such stupid journalism from raising its head again.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for protesting against TV9 regarding Nonsenceable Broadcast.

Anonymous said...

This is one of the most insensible acts of journalism by TV9 and thereby shows the level of their maturity in terms of culutural understanding. TV9 should be sued and serious action should be taken against the channel. Also, the journalists behind the story should be publicized in media at other channels and in the newspaper, so that they also realize how does it feel to be exposed in public due to any reason and they might loose out on their career (still god bless them though). Probably, they can't understand the importance and privacy maintenance of the situation but may be once if their kids grow gay too, they might empathize to what they've done. I want to say a lot of things, right now my heart is filled with anger already as we cannot disclose or talk in open about our sexuality due to the cultural background we belong to in India and this act of TV9 has just aggravated my anger. I would still say god bless all!

Bharath said...

I am appalled and shocked by the egregious breach of privacy and human rights perpetrated by TV9 in this so called expose. The report is nothing but a cheap attempt to boost ratings through the blatant promotion of homophobia, don't take my word for it, watch the report. The damage has been done, one if the outed individuals attempted suicide. It will probably ruin the lives of others as well.

TV9 should be ashamed for broadcasting this report. They must be held accountable for the pain, suffering and humiliation caused to these individuals. The least they can do is issue a public apology and stop broadcasting this report.

- Bharath

Bharath said...

Thank you for creating this blogpost!

Kris Bass said...

@Anonymous: It's my duty.

@Anonymous 2: Well, I think you can vent your anger by contributing in person to the protest.

@Baharath: I know about the suicide. And I consider it my duty to create such blogposts.

pappu poppins said...

this is a proof of right wing conservative funded journalism that is taking over the country. it is absolutely pathetic and infringes on basic human rights at all levels.

Kris Bass said...

@Pappu: This is true. I hope you can help in protesting against by using any of the measures that I suggested.

Anonymous said...

OUTRAGEOUS is the word...
breach of privacy.
It feels like the news channels have nothing much to do. All they need is to fill up stuff for 24- hour channels.
I think they should leave consenting adults alone.
Even if someone is doing something for money. It is still between the two of them.
The news channels are now into moral policing. It feels like a repeat of the women being beat up in the Mangalore pub.
This is a low for journalism in India.
It sucks.

Anonymous said...

Its terrible for the people who faced it. I hope they have taken it right.

Anonymous said...

Are these people out to change the world??

Karunodaya Arogyaragam said...

Can we protest to the Newsbroadcasting standards commission and get some official response from them and tv9

what is sad is there is no regret or apology from the sick ...s of the channel. They need to be punished!

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