India bans broadcast of film showing gang-rapist

NEW DELHI - Agence France-Presse

British filmmaker Leslee Udwin addresses a press conference on her documentary film "India's Daughter," about the Dec. 16, 2012 gang rape in a moving bus, in New Delhi, India on March 3, 2015. AP Photo.

India has banned the broadcast of a controversial documentary in which one of the men who gang-raped and murdered a student is shown blaming the victim -- a move the film's maker called "arbitrary censorship".
      
Home Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament on Wednesday the comments of Mukesh Singh, one of five men convicted over the 2012 attack in New Delhi, were "highly derogatory and an affront to the dignity of women".
      
"The government condemns it," he said of the documentary made by award-winning British film-maker Leslee Udwin, who won rare access to New Delhi's Tihar jail to interview the prisoner on death row.
      
"It will not allow any organisation to leverage such an incident and use it for commercial purpose," he said of the film, which charts the aftermath of the fatal gang-rape.
      
Singh's comments in the Rajya Sabha, India's upper house, came after a New Delhi court late Tuesday issued an order banning media from showing the film, "India's Daughter".
      
The reasons for the court ban were not immediately clear, but some in India have expressed concern that a convicted rapist was being given a platform for his views.
      
Spokesman Rajan Bhagat said the New Delhi police had petitioned the court for a ban on the grounds that the film's "objectionable content" could cause public disorder.
      
The physiotherapy student died from her injuries 13 days after she was savagely attacked on a bus while on her way home from the cinema. The incident  triggered violent protests in India.
      
It highlighted the frightening level of violence against women in the world's second most populous country and led to a major reform of India's rape laws, speeding up trials and increasing penalties.
                      
India's NDTV network was due to have shown the documentary to mark International Women's Day on Sunday, when it will also be broadcast in six other countries including Britain.
      
Udwin said she was heart-broken by the ban on the documentary, in which Mukesh Singh said the 23-year-old victim should not have been "roam(ing) around at 9 o'clock at night" and that "a girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy".
      
"I am sure, positive, that NDTV will fight this arbitrary censorship all the way, because it is an organisation that stands up for values, for public welfare and for the greater good," she told AFP.
      
"India is a country that values its rights and one of the most important of them is the freedom of speech, expression and that needs to be upheld."       

Udwin said earlier she had permission from both prison authorities and the home ministry to film inside the vast Tihar jail in Delhi for her documentary.
      
But Home Minister Singh said she had violated the terms of the agreement.        

The documentary divided lawmakers on Wednesday, with many applauding the ban but others saying India must confront views such as the rapist's -- however abhorrent.
      
"Banning this movie is not the answer," said Anu Agha, an independent MP.
      
"We have to confront the issue that men in India do not respect women and any time there is a rape, blame is put on the woman."       

No one at the NDTV network could immediately be reached for comment on the ban.
      
But Udwin said she believed the move would only serve to increase interest in her film.
      
"The more they try to stop the film, the more they are going to pique people's interest," she said.
      
"Now, everyone is going to want to see it."