Dhanya Rajendran

Dhanya has often had to face online violence on account of her work. In 2017, she faced a barrage of abuse on Twitter — all for expressing an opinion about Sura, a film she did not like. Her opinion about a Tamil film starring Vijay, a popular Tamil actor, angered his fans. Rajendran’s phone crashed after it couldn’t handle close to 31,000 tweets spread across a couple of minutes. #PublicityBeepDhanya—a hashtag was created just to abuse Rajendran— started trending. And choicest of abuses laden with sexual harassment followed.[6][7][8]

Dhanya filed a complaint with the cyber crime branch of the Chennai police. In response an FIR was filed under IPC sections 354 D (stalking), 506(1) (criminal intimidation), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), 509 (insulting the modesty of women), section 67 of IT Act (publishing obscene material), section 4 of TN Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act, and section 6 of the Indecent Representation of Women Act.[9]

M. K. Stalin, the leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam also a issued a statement against the misogynistic violence.[10] Despite deleting the original tweet, the violence continued. The Network for Women in Media, India and International Federation of Journalists issued statements in support of Dhanya and condemned the online violence she had to face.[11] Finally actor Vijay issued a statement asking his fans to stop the online violence against Dhanya.[12]

The Chennai police investigated Ramkumar, one of the accused, a Vijay fan and a Tamil Nadu resident in connection with her abuse. He apologised for his deed after the police met his mother and the denial of his bail by the Madras High Court.[13][14][15]

When she reported about godman Swami Nityananda being accused of sexual abuse, she had to face a lot of online sexual abuse on social media from the followers of Nithyananda's cult.[16] In response to her reportage, the followers made several news videos by calling her choicest of abuses including presstitute, anti-national among others.[17]

Dhanya has been vocal about violence faced by women journalists on the field. Immediately after former chief minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalitha's death, she wrote a piece about how she was molested by one of her security men when she was out to do stories around election coverage.[18] She reacted strongly against the violence faced by women journalists reporting about the entry of women in Sabarimala. In 2019, she issued a strong statement in support of women journalists protesting against the violence of the secretary of the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club against a woman journalist by saying: “If you touch one of us, we will retaliate. No longer your fiefdom.” [19] She has also come out in support of women sharing their stories during the Me too movement in India by consistently featuring several stories about the issue and also speaking out about it.[20]

Dhanya has also come out against sensationalism in news media by reflecting upon her own experiences as a journalist and the pressures that compel journalists to resort to digging out voyeuristic information in cases related to 'sexual abuse'. She has said that journalists should exercise restraint and shouldn't publish graphic details of a sexual crime since it is not of use to anyone, least of all to the victim or the survivor.[21]