Alleged rape victims violated again by media
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Teen soap opera actor Faisal strutted and posed confidently for the cameras, making light of rape allegations lodged by an 18- year-old ex-girlfriend.
"She's the one who forced me into sexual intercourse... Even if I did rape (a woman), why wouldn't I have picked a beautiful one?" the 19 year old said.
While the United States is gripped by the trial of basketball star Kobe Bryant for allegedly raping a young woman, local media has been whipped up into a frenzy about Faisal and his accuser.
Celebrity gossip tabloids and TV shows have been vying to land the latest scoop about the allegations, trundling out the young star's mother, his coworkers and fans to protest his innocence.
While the onus is on the woman to prove her allegations in court, she is also called on to justify herself in the court of public opinion, presided over by a skeptical tabloid media, in which concerns for privacy are judged inconsequential.
The past sexual history of Faisal's accuser has been dredged up, and she has been described as promiscuous. One TV gossip show interviewed a former boyfriend who alleged he had sex with the woman, and showed his home movie of her joking around for the camera.
"Well, if her allegation is true, then why isn't she brave enough to show her face?" sniffed one TV presenter after a camera crew came up empty-handed after camping out at the woman's home.
The dissection of the woman's background and personality is eerily similar to the Bryant case, where the young woman's history of emotional problems has been served up for public consumption and an old high school prom picture, showing her saucily lifting her skirt, has been published.
Of course, rape is a serious and damning allegation, but the media seems star-struck in reporting about Faisal, who has been declared a suspect but argues that he had consensual sex with the woman.
Faisal has told his side of the story to the tabloids; in return, they have waxed on about his youthful handsomeness, his thick eyebrows and beautiful aquiline nose, and pointed out that he has always played the good boy in TV series.
The inference is that the young woman -- loose and no great beauty -- must have concocted the rape allegation out of jealousy, a desire to grab some of the celebrity spotlight.
"That is so sexist. Pretty or not, anyone can become a rape victim," said woman's rights activist and legal expert Nursyahbani Katjasungkana.
Media observer Veven S.P. Wardhana said that local media still cannot position itself as a sympathetic but objective party in its treatment of alleged rape victims.
"They always focus on the physical description of the victims, like having fair skin and all. That's irrelevant. It's almost saying that because of her fair skin, she deserves to be raped," Veven said.
Biased coverage is also not exclusive to the scandal sheets, he added, noting that it is also done by mainstream publications and women's magazines.
"A women's tabloid once even published a picture of a child who was raped. Imagine the girl's pain and embarrassment. Women's publications are supposedly more sensitive, but the facts prove otherwise," he said.
Nursyahbani said local journalists also lacked an understanding about the different forms that rape can take, aside from the standard definition of forced sexual intercourse.
"While there are others concepts, such as sexual intercourse without consent, oral sex. Maybe it's because in Bahasa Indonesia, the vocabulary and understanding is still limited. While in English there's rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment," she said.
Fed up by the media coverage, the mother of Faisal's accuser went to the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), seeking support for her daughter.
After the meeting on Nov. 6, the head of Komnas Perempuan's monitoring subcommission, Murniati, warned journalists to tone down their coverage.
"The press has to consider carefully the victim's psychological circumstances. Publicity can leave the victim more depressed," she said.
However, in what some found a strange position to take for an institution entrusted as a guardian of women's interests, the commission said it did not believe the complaint should have been brought to its attention.
As biased and sexist coverage can be considered violence against women, perhaps the institution best suited to handling such a dispute is the media governing body of the Press Council.
Unfortunately, the council itself has no rules about biased coverage in rape cases.
"There is no specific point about that in the journalistic code of ethics. It's just the question of appropriateness. It is the same as covering war victims -- we shouldn't expose pictures of the wounded," said council head Ikhlasul Amal.
Complaints can be addressed to the Council, who will later summon the media in question.
"They have to provide clarification, an apology or sanction the reporters. If they refuse, we will publish a press release about them. I think that will be embarrassing enough for the media," Ikhlasul said.
It's doubtful the offending media's embarrassment, if any, compares to the shame of those women brave enough to come forward to face their own trial by fire.