BTS |'They'd Tell Us What to Say': How Media Hounded Air India Victims' Families

This BTS video recorded over 7 days since the tragedy shows the media circus behind the Air India crash coverage.

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Producer & Editor: Zijah Sherwani

Camera: Shiv Kumar Maurya, Tanveer Ahmed

In the past one week since the Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad, the Indian media hit new lows of insensitive and unethical journalism. Several reporters not only hounded grieving families but also the locals in Ahmedabad for bytes and interviews.

This BTS video recorded over seven days since the tragedy shows the circus behind the minute-by-minute coverage we all saw on our TV and mobile phone screens.

Victims' Familes Hounded

Whenever the media saw an families of any victims for the first two days, it usually was not a good experience for them.

Now these were families who were told that their loved ones have been killed, and their bodies are yet to be identified. It was an agonising wait of four to five days for some families for the bodies to be identified after giving the DNA samples. For some people, entire families have been wiped out. For some people, even the bodies have not been found. And while they are going through all of that trauma, imagine being subjected to constant questioning.

"For familes of victims, the reporters were the biggest trouble. 'When did you come? How did you come? Did you come on a horse? Did you come on an elephant?' - Are these questions to be asked?" said Ghulam Rasool Patel, uncle of British national Javed Ali Syed who was killed in the crash along with his wife and two children.

"Some reporters did not even know the number of the flight that has crashed. Why are such reporters allowed anywhere?" he said.

The media also had access to the room where DNA sampling was done o the first day, but the next day onwards, entry for any mediaperson inside was disallowed.

It is a part of the journalistic process to try and interview those impacted by a tragedy. Even we approached a few families of the victims. But there's a difference between sensitively approaching them to ask if they would be willing to speak to you and shoving mikes in their faces and yelling questions at them. 

By the third day, no family of any victims was willing to speak to the media. There were even a few altercations between familes and reporters.

Due to media hounding, it was only sensible that when the bodies were being handed over to the families, the media was kept at bay. 

Ahmedabad Locals Hounded

On 14 June, two days after the tragedy, the site of the crash was cordoned off for the media.

Many then found a Gujarat Housing Board colony behind the crash site from where the hostel building and the crashed aircraft could be clearly seen. One such house was Snehaben's.

Priyaben Patni, who lives next door, narrated how mediapersons would enter their homes without even asking for permission.

"For the first one or two days. we would let people come in because even we were scared. But then, there were 500-600 people here sometimes. They would come from various parts. Some people, who were not mediapersons either, would come till 2 o'clock in the night. We let people come for 2-3 days but then we locked doors and went away because the childeren were getting scared," she said.

Hounding of Aryan Asari

The first video of the crash that went viral was shot by 17-year-old Aryan Asari who had come to Ahmedabad visit his dad from Aravali district. He just wanted to record the video of a plane flyiing and ended up recording the crash, which had already traumatised him. But the media harassed him so much for next two days that his father, a retired armyman, had to call the police for protection.

A video of the police taking him away went viral yesterday claiming that he was arrested. The police later clarified that he was just taken to record his statement on what he saw and sent back to his hometown eventually.

Sunita, Asari's neighbour, speaking to The Quint said: "The boy did not record the video thinking this will become a problem. It was only going away from a close distance so he shot the video to show this friends and family back home. To show a plane from such a close proximity. Seconds later, the plane crashed. For two days, a lot of media persons came here. They questioned him a lot and even on 14 June, a lot of reporters were here till around 6 PM."

A Sensitive Lens at a Sensitive Time

In the past one week, the Indian media did what it had to, and so did we. While there were mediapersons whose behaviour was problematic, there were also scores of mediapersons who were very respectful, sensitive, and reported some very important stories on the tragedy.

After tragedies like these, it often becomes tricky to strike a balance between being sensitive and also trying to tell stories of those impacted. We did our best to strike that balance.

Since the tragedy, we brought you scores of stories of several people impacted by the tragedy, including those who were not passengers of the ill fated aircraft. Kindly support our coverage by becoming a member.