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Police
officers escort Mukesh Singh, one of the men convicted of the gang-rape and
murder of an Indian student, outside the High Court in New Delhi, on September
24, 2013
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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 India's 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.
International media reports:
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.
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