Tv channels promote violence against women

While the whole world is highlighting the importance of preventing violence against women, some television channels in this country are actively promoting it. These television stations import cheap soap operas dubbed in Sinhala from India and broadcast them for prime time viewing right into homes and bedrooms in Sri Lanka. This is a time when older children might well be watching and could easily absorb the culture of women-bashing so explicitly portrayed in these dramas. Almost every soap opera we are treated to is full of scenes in which women are abused, assaulted and treated as chattels.

While the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act of 2005 provided enabling legislation to bring direct offenders to book, it lacked the teeth and institutional set-up to deal with less obvious, more subtle, promoters of the culture of violence against women. The only remedy left in the hands of civil society in dealing with this problem is to name and shame the offenders. Unfortunately, in this and other matters in which the media are involved, they stand up for each other and will not give publicity to any campaign against one of their kind – like doctors who hide or defend the medical mistakes of their colleagues.

In the end, one might well have to go before the Supreme Court as this is clearly a case in which the fundamental rights of women are being openly violated.