SO which newspaper is right – the Post-Courier or The National?
The former reported on Oct 4, that a man, in violent fury, imprisoned his wife and subjected her to in-human torture for a week during which he poured boiling water over his wife and “pulled” a foetus from her womb.
The woman, whom Post-Courier names as Toy Moli (later Molly) landed in Kudjip Nazarene Hospital from where she was discharged a couple of days back.
The man end up at Banz police station from which he escaped within hours and is still at large.
The shocking picture of the tortured woman graced the Post-Courier’s pages more than once.
Several days later the newspaper ran an interview with the man, Robert Ju which showed up the man’s small-mindedness for all the world to see that she was lucky to be alive because she had been raped and that the ordeal had caused her to experience a miscarriage and she had lost their child.
He asserted that both the rape and miscarriage were crimes for which she ought to be put to death.
We shall leave the obvious retort this kind of thinking brings out in us all and the anger that gushes out of us at the double dose of violence perpetrated upon the woman.
Let’s turn first to the matter of the baby being “pulled out”, a truly gruesome act, if it did happen, which raised the ire of right thinking people both here and abroad.
Last Friday, The National reported that the woman, Toi Molly of Kame Village near Mt Hagen had gone back to the husband, who is named as Robert Zu.
She had claimed, the paper reported, that her husband Zu was innocent of “all the allegations” made in the media and by concerned authorities. She did confirm, however, that the husband had hit her on the head and on the legs and poured hot water over her so we can deduce that she is referring to the allegation of the baby being aborted.
Western Highlands acting police chief Insp Kaiglo Ambane was also quoted in The National as saying that Toi Molly was raped by two men from the village and seemed to be of the opinion that she had a miscarriage as a result and lost the baby.
Insp Ambane criticised the Post-Courier and accused it of sensationalising the story.
The issue here is violence against women. The Post-Courier has done a commendable in-your-face type reporting which has brought so many battered woman out to speak up about their experiences on this national scourge. That is as it should be.
But newspapers and the media generally thrive on facts and this matter of the foetus being “pulled out” of the womb has to be settled by good reporting of the facts.
And good facts will in the end shed light on a lot of grey areas in this violence against women issue and the particular case under study.
We cannot, in search of good stories to support even better issues, pander half truths or ill researched articles to the public.
In the end, sloppy journalism can actually undo a lot of good intention and effort.
From the two news reports on this case, I deduce some material extenuating circumstances to be that:
Toi (or Toy) Molly of Kame Village was raped or caught in an adulterous relationship;
Angered by the rape the husband, Robert Zu, tortured her, beat her up and poured boiling water on her;
Toi had a miscarriage and lost her baby at seven months of pregnancy; and
Toi was hospitalised and has now gone back to her husband;
Robert Zu (Ju) was arrested, detained for a brief period and escaped mysteriously where he is still at large.
There are gaping holes in this story that should really be standard stuff for any journalist or editor ought to fill out.
The when or time factor – when was the rape allegedly committed.
When did the miscarriage occur?
When did the beating and hot water pouring occur?
If the miscarriage occurred before the beating, the most probable cause of miscarriage could be the rape.
If it happened after, then it could be both the rape and the beating or it could have been pulled out as the Post-Courier reported.
What was established at the hospital?
It is not everybody who can reach into a womb, locate a baby and rip it out without medical knowledge.
Such forced entry would very easily be established by any medical officer examining the woman.
The Post-Courier reported that the medical officer reported no signs of rape. Ripping a baby from the womb would show.
What action did the police take on the alleged rape incident?
Who and where are the rapists?
I assume the rapists are still at large and laughing over this matter. What action has been taken against the husband as the grievous bodily harm caused the wife is criminal?
Then there are conflicting facts.
Is the couple from Aviamp as the Post-Courier reported or from Kame as The National reported?
Get the spellings of the couple’s names correct because both are spelt differently in both papers.
The Post-Courier had direct quotes several weeks ago from the woman who sounded as if she might be living in fear of her life but now she is out of hospital
The National tells us she is all too willing to go back to her husband and seems to have forgiven all.
Should there not be a case of coercion or threats here or is this the actual situation?
Violence against women happens too often for us to be flippant.
It behoves journalists, policemen, politicians and all of society to take a stand.
Where it happens we have to establish the facts of the case.
If, as in this case, a woman was beaten to an inch of her life and she lost her baby in the seventh month of pregnancy, and she was all for having the man arrested and locked up and wanted to stay with her grand mother and never return to him and later turns right around and goes back to the man, there must be something in the social, psychological make-up of the person that forces such a situation. It needs studying.
Even without a threat being uttered, could a threat be implicit in the fact that a violent man who rightly belongs in jail is still at large?
Could this fact have forced the woman to go back to him to mitigate a bigger punishment if he were to go out looking for her?
If this were so, the police are to blame for not carrying out their job well enough.
Could the value of a battered and scarred young woman among her own relatives have gone down with her own community such that shame and rejection might have driven her back to the only place where she knows she will be accepted, however painful that might be?
Could the compensation of K1,100 and three pigs (from which the poor Toi Moli reportedly received K20) be said to be sufficient recompense for her suffering and the crime that society will forget the crime?
Should the State allow for that?
There are some of the serious questions we need to raise and look at and we would be better informed if our national media were more meticulous and really buckled down and got the details of everything involved in such a case.