What is a news story? You will rarely find two journalists agreeing on a definition. Rarer still will you find reporters in a newsroom discussing definitions of what makes a news story. But it is useful to think about a few basic principles.

A journalist's job is to present the facts, the diverse views or interpretations of the facts as interestingly as possible. He or she is entitled to have an opinion - but not to express it in a news story. The facts have to speak for themselves. This is the primary difference between a news report and an article on an editorial page or an op-ed opinion piece.

We cannot ignore the constraints of a newsroom. We are paid to produce stories the paper will use, and the reality is that what seems like an important story to human rights activists may not seem so to a news editor. That should not, however, stop you trying to convince the news editor that human rights matter - and can make good copy. Well-reported stories with a strong human rights dimension do get published in India, though not so commonly as we might wish. Too frequently, we hear that editors have turned HR stories down because they have no time, no space, or no interest; or, perhaps, the story is rejected because someone thinks it may alienate an important contact or constituency. To get around that kind of attitude demands stories of the highest quality - stories which are just too good to put on the spike! You won't always succeed, of course, but when you do, it might just make a difference.

What makes a human rights news report? It's tough to come up with a simple definition. But if the story it tells reveals an injustice, if it brings to light a violation of what you would consider one of your own basic rights as a human being, and if it's a story that's not been told before, then it would qualify. In India, sadly, there is a vast number of issues which can be perceived as "human rights" violations.

Some are obvious and are covered in the media on a fairly frequent basis. The often appalling treatment of Dalits, discrimination against women, child labour. Then there are issues such as custodial death, where those who are supposed to guarantee law and order are themselves the lawbreakers. But there are also human rights violations happening in day-to-day situations and which are not so commonly seen in print.

Millions of Indians are deprived of basics like food, shelter and education, forced into situations which would be degrading to any human being. Yet these infringements of human rights, these blatant violations of human dignity, go unreported for much of the time. Too many journalists will say, "These things happen all the time in India - it's not a story." But it is a story. It's often a great story that simply needs a good reporter to tell it. It's our function as reporters to bring these situations to the attention of our readers, and to spur into action those who have the power to do something about them.

The essential thing is to go out into the community and hunt the story. Don't sit in the office and wait for it to turn up. The good ones will never arrive, and you'll be a run-of-the-mill reporter for the rest of your career.

Human rights stories often mean taking on the powerful - the police, security forces, jail officials, politicians, the rich, the unscrupulous. So be extra careful about your facts. You have to be right. Use a tape recorder for those tricky interviews; get supporting documentation for all your main points, and take photos or photo-copies of ALL your documents; make duplicate copies of your computer disks; get as much supporting evidence as you can. And remember, it is always better to have more than one source to verify something as serious as a violation of human rights.

If you are talking about a torture victim, get photographs of injuries if the victim is willing. Graphic visuals make strong evidence. But you'll often find your primary source - the victim - is willing to talk but not to be quoted or photographed. It goes without saying that you should respect their confidence, but look for other ways of telling the story. It's legitimate to use pseudonyms, for example, to protect your source where they really might be in danger. But explain in the story why you're doing it.

It also helps to have at least a nodding acquaintance with key legislation on the different areas of human rights, and this manual is intended to help with that. Read the sections on particular areas of human rights, and use them as a practical resource.

You may need more than a nodding acquaintance with the legislation as you delve into a story, but you can check with the lawyers or with the non-governmental organisations working in the field. They often have libraries which contain huge amounts of documentation, and the expertise to point you at the relevant pages. They will almost certainly be happy to help. You're unlikely to be an expert on the law yourself, although you'll get more knowledgeable with every story you do. What matters is to know enough about the law to recognise a problem.

Which then becomes a story.

Where do we find ideas/tips for human rights stories? The short answer is "everywhere". If we flip through Indian newspapers, we can pick up a list of themes which could serve as starting points for news, features or analytical stories.

Here are just a few:

Slavery
Police atrocities
Custodial deaths
Abuse of minors employed as domestic help
Minors working in hazardous jobs
Rape/parading of victims
Domestic violence
Child abuse, including sexual abuse
Dowry deaths
Violence against Dalits
Excesses by security forces/police
Abuse of tribals
Illegal detention
Hounding of Aids/HIV affected
Prejudice against the disabled
Violence against religious and ethnic minorities
Human rights violations by militants (eg Kashmir)
Denial of minimum wages/decent working conditions

The list could go on and on…..

But these stories are not the kind that land on your desk without considerable input from you. They won't always come in the form of a press release, although a press release might contain the germ of an idea. They may be buried deep in some official report, or in the middle of a speech. Activist bodies know about them, of course, so you need to cultivate sources in those organisations. And in all cases, you have to think creatively - how can I find out about this story, what's the best way to tell it in a fashion that will make compulsive reading?

Because the object of a newspaper is to be read; of a news programme to be listened to, or watched. Newspapers which bore their readers don't survive, and listeners switch off their radio and TV sets if the news bulletins are dull. So the story has to be about something which will interest the readers - something which matters to them, or stimulates their curiosity. You, the reporter/writer, are the architect of that interest.

Newness is one of the factors - but only one - which contribute to interest. If the story has been told before, readers and listeners are less likely to take any notice of it. But it is important to distinguish between the newness of the STORY and the newness of the ACTIVITY which it records. If your readers have not read about it before, it is new to THEM, and that is what matters. Which leads us on to

Community

Who are your readers? It is vital for reporters and writers of all kinds to know their audience. Are you writing for a national readership or a local readership? Is the paper bought by the more affluent people in society, or the most educated, or by the community at large? Are your readers young or middle-aged? Identifying the audience - the COMMUNITY - knowing what matters to them and what interests them, will help you to determine what, for your paper, is news.

News values depend on the readers - on what they will want to read or can be persuaded to read.

FACTORS DETERMINING NEWS VALUE

Timeliness Is the story topical? Is there already an interest in the subject matter? If not, is it strong enough to create its own topicality?

Proximity
1. Geographical

A good home story beats a good foreign story every time, the old news editors used to say. Home, or local, means the area of influence of a newspaper or broadcasting service - its circulation area. Does the story concern something which happened within the area? Someone who lives there - or used to live there?

2. Proximity of interest
Does the story affect the people who live in the circulation area? Is it relevant to their activities?

Size
For a good old-fashioned news story, that means the scale of the event, or the personality (or perhaps the skill of the publicity machine), the magnitude of the audience response. For human rights stories, where it's more to do with issues than with events, the questions are slightly different:

How many people does it affect? How big is its effect on their lives? How long has it been going on? Half India's children are girls, which makes discrimination against them a very big story.

Importance

How does this issue affect India? How much does it matter to your audience? What does it cost us, in economic, social and human terms?

What sort of stories will people read? The question is a difficult one - the answer will vary with time and place - but it always comes down to one thing: interest. And most readers are interested in other PEOPLE. What people say, but even more important, what people do. And what is done to them. So tell your stories in terms of PEOPLE.

Let's look at five news stories:

'Employer adds intimidation to injury'

Hindustan Times, 24.5.2000

'Surat couple beat up 8-year-old maid to educate her'

Indian Express, March 9, 2000

'Crimes against girl child'

Assam Tribune, 24.2.2000

'Domestic violence kills more women than cancer, mishaps'

Hindustan Times, 1.2.2000

'Undertrial tortured, stripped in Tihar Jail'

Hindustan Times, 13.6.2000

'Employer adds intimidation to injury'

(Hindustan Times, 24.5.2000)

This is a story about the right to justice, and dramatically brings home the glaring human rights violations in small factories in Delhi. Santosh, a 15-year-old village boy, lost two fingers while working in a factory in Delhi, but instead of compensation and medical assistance, he faced threats and intimidation. It's a fairly typical story of a minor from a village compelled to take a factory job in Delhi to support his family. It makes an impact because it brings out the multiple vulnerabilities of people in Santosh's situation. Santosh's case is not unique.

The story is powerful, though a crisper style would have added more punch.

Now let us look at the story in depth: The first paragraph sets out the theme:

A week back, 15 year-old Santosh lost two fingers at an accident at work, and with it, possibly all means of earning a livelihood. But instead of sympathy and help, his employers only threatened him, wanting to hush up the incident.

The story does not name the factory nor identify its line of activity. Obvious questions come to mind. Was Santosh doing hazardous work? The law says a 15-year-old can work in a factory provided the work is not hazardous. What sort of compensation packages did the factory offer to employees who were injured while working? Did Santosh have any formal contract? According to the story, Santosh claims that while he was cleaning a plastic-shredding machine, his employer asked him why the machine had stopped. The story quotes Santosh:

When I told him I was cleaning it, he got angry, saying work should not be stopped. He started the machine before I could pull my hand out, resulting in my index and middle fingers getting chopped.

Santosh says he was taken to a nearby doctor, and then to his employer's house. He alleges he was detained there for three days. He was also warned that he would die if he breathed a word about the accident to anyone. The report states that the factory owner remained incommunicado.

So there is clearly a story worth writing about the way Santosh was treated. But the reporter misses the opportunity to explore the wider issue. Is Santosh's case an isolated instance of denial of justice? What is the lot of factory workers in Delhi who often work in hazardous jobs without the benefit of an appointment letter or a formal contract or insurance/medical policy?

Local trade unions, to whom the reporter had spoken, would have been able to fill him in on some of these points.

Finally, a comment about style: Quotes are useful. They give authenticity and impact to a story, but only if they are well chosen. They have to be relevant and significant, and they have to pass this test: If you paraphrase the quote in indirect speech, which will usually shorten it, does it still have the same impact as the original? If the answer is yes, then paraphrase. If no, the extra impact probably justifies those extra words.

In the second paragraph, Santosh says: "My employer…..asked me why the machine had been stopped. When I told him I was cleaning it, he got angry, saying work should not be stopped. He started the machine before I could pull my hand out, resulting in my index and my middle fingers getting chopped."

The reporter could have done it like this:

Santosh was cleaning a plastic shredding machine when his boss asked why the machine had stopped. " When I told him I was cleaning it, he got angry. He started the machine before I could pull my hand out," the teenager recalls. The result: Santosh lost his middle and index fingers.

'Surat couple beat up 8-year-old maid to educate her'
(Indian Express, March 9, 2000)

Another story about hazards at the work place, but this time a straightforward story about the abuse of domestic help. Eight-year-old Mithilesh of Surat was brutally assaulted by her employer and her husband. She was admitted to a hospital with a broken limb and other serious injuries.

The story said the couple confessed to beating up the girl, but told the police that they were "attempting to educate her." They were arrested and released on bail.

What is the point the reporter is trying to make? Is this sort of abuse common, or an isolated incident? What does it say about the rights of vulnerable children like Mithilesh? Why was Mithilesh working as a domestic servant at such a tender age? What about her parents?

There are two issues here: child labour and torture. How common is it to hire underage maids? What does the law say about it? Are the employers ever prosecuted? As for torture, how many people have been arrested for abusing their domestic help, and how many convicted?

The reporter has to go beyond mere description. The job is to present the facts cogently, to let the facts speak for themselves, but there is a point to be made too, and a strong social and human rights message to be delivered. Either the reporter needs to interpret and analyse in such a way as to ensure delivery, or find someone in an authoritative position who can make the point out loud and in quotes.

Crimes against girl child
(Assam Tribune, 24.2.2000)

More crimes against girl children, this time in Assam. The story comes from a study presented at a workshop. Seminars/workshops produce a lot of dreary material but an alert reporter can find interesting story ideas from papers presented at such gatherings. The trick in doing workshop-based stories is to go beyond the academic presentation, to follow-up ideas generated at the meeting and ask questions which would interest the lay reader.

What is the most interesting point in the story? Could the story have been cut? If so, what elements could have been pared down? The story says kidnappings constituted 64.82 per cent of all recorded cases involving girl victims between 1992 and 1997. Cachar district, it says, had the dubious distinction of heading the list in this category with 256 cases.

But there is no attempt to explain why this is so. Even if a story is written purely for a local readership, there is a need to put it into context. Given the facts, the reporter should try to find out how the situation in his/her area is different from elsewhere. It would also be worth asking: what is the situation today?

The story could also use a good sub. The intro is a mass of figures. It says:

At least 3,127 cases targeting minor girls were registered with the police between 1992-97 in the districts of the state where the victims were girls below the age of 18.

If these girls are under 18, they are minors, so just say it once. And what sort of cases are we talking about here? The story might have started like this:

More than 2,000 girls under 18 were kidnapped in Assam between 1992 and 1997.
Police records show….

That has much more impact. The second sentence could then have given more details of the figures and the source. The second paragraph of 22 lines contains one sentence of more than 50 words and another of more than 40, and it says obvious things, like:

….the workshop began with the inaugural session…..

You're supposed to be telling a story, not writing the official minutes of the meeting.

'Domestic violence kills more women than cancer, mishaps'
Hindustan Times, 1.2.2000

This is a curtain-raiser to a conference on domestic violence. The headline makes a dramatic assertion but the statement to back it up is buried in paragraph 6.

Read the introduction:

Domestic violence targeting women is all-pervasive and cuts across classes, irrespective of education, status and background, say recent studies in the country.

The generalised lead robs the story of much of its punch.

A better way to start might have been:

For every rape case reported, 70 remain unregistered. For every molestation that comes to light, 375 go unreported. In nearly 94 per cent of cases of violence, the victim and the offender are family members.

The second paragraph could say something like:

These stark revelations are from research studies on domestic violence in four Indian states initiated by the International Center for Research on Women.

Then in the third para, we could bring in a quote from Anuradha Rajan, country representative of ICRW.

The study on which the report is based concludes that "violence at home claims more women victims each year than cancer or accidents." But the reporter tells us nothing more about this. There must be facts, figures, illustrations aplenty if the reporter bothers to read the eight studies thoroughly. And if there aren't, the reporter should go out to find some. If not immediately, then as a follow-up.

This is a good example of how not to report conferences. The language and style are heavy, relying too much on jargon. For instance:

The report details existing forms, reasons and redressal systems related to domestic violence in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, which contribute significantly to the national crime figures.

What are these forms, reasons and redressal systems? The reporter could have written a sentence or two each on the forms domestic violence takes in each of these states, with concrete examples and case studies. It would have taken longer, of course, but it would have been worth reading, and it would have been a contribution to the debate.

Statistics are good accessories, but a story has to have more than that. It needs people, colour, and ideas.

Direct quotes always make an impact, and a good quote can make a powerful conclusion. So the last para could be summarised and rewritten like this:

Rajan said the process of investigation of domestic violence needs to be more stringent. Hospitals, police and courts need to link up so that a victim does not have to run from one body to another for justice.

"Domestic violence is not a private matter between husband and wife. It is a public issue," she declared.

This may not always be the way we were brought up to write our news stories, but times have changed. With multiple channels of information, the advent of television and the Internet, old ideas about news writing are not sacrosanct. Newspapers don't generally break hard news these days, so the story can, and perhaps should, be treated with something more like a feature writer's touch.

Undertrial tortured, stripped in Tihar Jail
(Hindustan Times, 13.6.2000)

The last story in this section is based on a petition filed by an undertrial in Delhi's Tihar Jail, complaining that he was beaten and stripped by officers there. The court ordered an inquiry, and demanded a medical report.

It's not, sadly, an uncommon story in India these days, so it's one to take seriously. How might it be developed to explore the broad issue of maltreatment of people held in the country's custodial institutions? On the face of it, we have a straightforward news story, and there may be legal constraints that would prevent too detailed an examination of it at this stage. The story could, however, be a peg for a wider investigation.

Such extensions of events reporting are vital to public understanding of the news, and there's no hard formula for carrying them out. Your approach to the story would depend very much on your own understanding of the subject, on the attitude of the people involved and on other stories that have been carried on related topics. Conventional news coverage would concentrate on the "what happened" questions, but the wider story would demand deeper enquiries, delving into the issues. Why did it happen? Is the system at fault, or is it a few individuals who are to blame? If it isn't an isolated case (as it isn't), is there a pattern to such abuses? What is being done to change things?

Even as straight news, there's one obvious gap here. There is no quote from a jail official in the story as published - possibly for legal reasons, but a missing link from the journalist's point of view. Even if the allegation is true, it is necessary to get the viewpoint of other parties involved. If someone refuses to talk to the reporter, that itself may be a comment on the state of affairs and should be mentioned in the story.

Reporters spend a lot of time attending press conferences, symposia and seminars, or wading through official and semi-official documents. They're often heavy going, but a lot of them deal with issues that can make news, including human rights stories, if you take the right approach. The challenge is to look through the smokescreen of academic style, the jargon of experts and officials, and spot the angle which can give you a great story.

Employer adds intimidation to injury

The Hindustan Times, May 24, 2000

Surat Couple bear 8-yr-old maid to 'educate her'

The New Indian Express, March 10, 2000

Domestic Violence kills more women than cancer, mishaps

The Hindustan Times, February 2, 2000

Undertrial tortured, stripped in Tihar Jail

The Hindustan Times, June 13, 2000

Crimes against girl child

The Hindustan Times, February 2, 2000

Here are three more stories to consider.

Plea to ratify convention against torture.

(Hindustan Times, 29.6.2000)

Does the story make clear why the ratification of the Convention against Torture is important?
What elements does this story rely on for readability?
Who do you consider would read it?
What would prompt the reporter to write it?
Why has the newspaper published it?

First, a few points of style. Look at the very first line:

Torture is undoubtedly the most heinous human rights violation.

This is a truism. By beginning the story with such a patently obvious statement, the reporter risks losing the interest of the reader from the outset.

The second paragraph is no better.

These words were expressed by Mr. Ashok Chakravorty, SSP, National Human Rights Commission, at a sensitization seminar held last night at IMA House by IMA Noida and Shubodaya Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and Violence.

What is a 'sensitization seminar'? It's jargon, that's what! What's an SSP? And what does IMA stand for? Does it matter?

We should avoid this kind of secret code at all costs. Reporters covering human rights stories are constantly in touch with activists, specialists and officials of one kind or another, so they need to be able to speak the same language. But then they need to translate the jargon and the officialese into language accessible to ordinary people. So drop terms like 'sensitization seminar'. Ordinary people don't use them. And if you have to use acronyms, spell them out at the beginning. There are very few - such as UN, BBC and USA - which are well enough known to stand without clarification.

Now consider the substance of the story. It's about policy, or the lack of it. What is the core issue? Why is it important to ratify the Convention against Torture and what is the impact of non-ratification? The answer is buried in paragraphs five and six. The key point is that though the National Human Rights Commission persuaded the Indian government to sign the Convention against Torture in 1997, Delhi is yet to ratify it. Without ratification, necessary changes in domestic and municipal law cannot be made. At stake are critical questions on torture and custodial deaths which continue to feature routinely in our newspapers.

The reporter was sent to cover a seminar, and has done so. But the seminar could have been the peg for something more challenging, more interesting and more significant. How would you approach it?

One of the most interesting lines in the story is the National Human Rights Commission's plea to make it mandatory to video-film post-mortems in cases of a custodial death. The NHRC (note how we have brought in the acronym and explained it in a quite inconspicuous but effective way) argues that in many cases the post-mortem report is the only credible piece of evidence and since the outcome of the case hinges on the post-mortem report, every effort should be made to make it bias-free. One way of dramatising the report could be to explore this point further. Have there been cases where the post-mortem report was questioned? What happened? How does it work when there's a video of the examination?

The story lacks statistics about torture and custodial deaths in India. If they weren't given at the seminar (and they probably were), the good reporter would seek them out independently - perhaps from experts at the seminar - to make the story more complete. Details matter. They can be the thing which distinguishes your good story from the pallid report carried by the opposition! But don't overdo it. It is not the reporter's job to write down uncritically everything each speaker says. Be selective, be critical. Which means evaluating each piece of information, each detail you gather and making decisions about what is worth reporting and what should not even get into your notebook.

Gone far, but still more miles to go…
(The Times of India, 30.6.2000)

This is a story that started life as a document, and again, the most important thing is to pick out only the relevant and interesting bits for publication. Here, the reporter has done a fairly good job.

The Human Development Report 2000 - released Thursday - contains plenty of good news for India.

His intro zeroes in on something which would interest an Indian reader - just what's needed. The report then goes on to say:

The country has moved up four notches to 128 on the human development index (HDI) and has been complimented for putting human rights at the core of its development strategies.

What sustains the reader's interest is the reporter's critical assessment of the points made in the Human Development Report.

The third para begins :

Though the report contains positive references to India, there is little room for complacency.…..

The format of the story is reader-friendly. It has thematic sub-headings which make it easier to read. In each case, the reporter balances the positive with the unflattering references to India, sustaining reader interest.

Example:

It notes how public interest litigation cases have been used to secure the social and economic rights of citizens when the state has failed to discharge its duty. However, the shortage of judges and the overwhelming backlog of cases strangle the rule of law. The report notes that in India, there are more than 2,000 pending cases per judge.

Which may suggest another way to approach the story…..

The box, with its "sweet and sour" headline and its graphic, demonstrates a useful device to highlight key points in a story. It's probably been done by a sub, but the reporter writing the story needs to be aware of the possibilities of boxes and sidebars. They can relieve the potential weight of a long story, provide a quick reference point and give detail that would be out of place in the main body of the story. Keep the possibility in the back of your mind as you type your story.

That's even more important if you're writing for the web. Sidebars and break-out stories are fundamental building blocks in web-based news delivery.

India, a land of abuse: Amnesty International.
(The Statesman, 18.6.2000)

This time the source of The Statesman's story is a report from Amnesty International.
Read the second para:

Iterating many of the international organisation's long-standing criticisms of the Indian government, the Amnesty has also pointed to linkages between the attacks on minorities and right-wing Hindu groups following the BJP's return to power.

The sentence construction, starting off with a generalising subsidiary clause before moving to a main clause dealing with something more specific, does little to create clarity. It would be more effective to start the story like this:

Amnesty International has linked the increasing attacks on minorities in India with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s return to power in Delhi and the growing clout of right-wing Hindu fundamentalist groups in the country.

The organisation's annual report 2000 indicts the Indian government for failing to check new patterns of human rights abuse, including the increasing attacks on human rights organizations.

This can lead directly to para 6, which buttresses the point.

Citing examples, the organization goes on to say the government "imposed increased administrative restrictions on human rights organizations. Several organizations, including those involved in an advertisement campaign at the time of elections to raise concern about the gender policies of the BJP, were threatened with having their registration withdrawn."

Two points of writing skill arise:

1. Paragraphs making related points and supporting arguments should be sequenced one after another. Scattering them all over dilutes the effectiveness of the story.
   
2. Pick out for quotation only the most telling phrases from documents. The rest can be paraphrased, with more impact in fewer words than huge chunks taken verbatim from the documents.

One way of summarising para six is :

Amnesty alleges that the Indian government "imposed increased administrative restrictions on human rights organisations." It says human rights organisations which criticised the BJP government's gender policies at the time of elections were threatened with de-registration.