The “selfie death” that wasn’t

Lazy journalism led to Pranita Mehta’s tragic death being widely reported as a “selfie death”. Now her father wants to sue India TV and The Times of India.

WrittenBy:Kshitij Malhotra
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On May 29, a young woman named Pranita Mehta, 21, died while holidaying in Gokarna, Karnataka. Her tragic death was widely reported in the media. Mehta is the “selfie-death” that you’ve probably read about because it appeared in almost every national newspaper — presented as a despairing comment on millennials whose quest for the perfect selfie knows no bounds. There’s just one problem: contrary to these reports, Mehta did not die trying to take the perfect selfie.

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The media narrative went something like this: Mehta and four of her friends were holidaying in Gokarna and on May 29, they went to visit a lighthouse in Belikan village, near Gokarna. There, while attempting to take a selfie, Mehta supposedly slipped and fell 300 feet into the sea. Her body was eventually recovered by some locals and she was pronounced dead.

However, the reality is very different and this has come to light as a result of a concerted campaign by Mehta’s friends, particularly from National Law University, Jodhpur (NLUJ), who took to Reddit to publicise the actual chain of events.

According to Akriti Gaur, Mehta’s friend and an alumnus of NLUJ, far from falling from the lighthouse, Mehta and her friends weren’t even in it.

“She [Mehta] was sitting along with two or three of her friends on some rocks near the edge of the sea,” Gaur told Newslaundry. “It wasn’t a lighthouse, it wasn’t 300 feet above and there was no selfie.” She said Mehta didn’t fall into the sea, but was swept away by a wave. “Pranita and one of her friends were pulled away [by the wave]. The other friend returned with the next wave, but Pranita could not.”

Gaur’s description of how Mehta died, gathered from friends, is hauntingly tragic. “She knew how to swim, so for 30 minutes she was trying to fight the tide while her friends shouted for help,” said Gaur. “I’m told that someone went to the nearby village to get people but there was a language problem. The entire process took around 40-45 minutes and by the time help came, it was too late.”

Mehta’s father, Dr Sunil Mehta spoke to Newslaundry on the phone from Jodhpur and also reiterated that there was no mention of a lighthouse when he was intimated about the incident.

“One of Pranita’s friends who was with her when this happened, her father – who is a family friend – called me up around 12 pm and said that Pranita and her friends were sitting on the beach and a wave swept them away,” he said.

When the body was finally recovered, Dr Mehta spoke to the local SHO who confirmed that his daughter had died. “He [the SHO] told me that the body was in the water for about 45 minutes to an hour and there was no chance [of her surviving],” he said. After arriving in Gokarna to take her body back to Jodhpur, Dr Mehta said he was informed of the circumstances of his daughter’s death by the local police authorities.

“They told me that they were sitting on a rock and suddenly there was a huge wave which swept away three people – two girls and one boy,” he said. “In the returning wave, one girl and one boy came back but my daughter was stuck a few feet from the shore on a rock, where she swam for 30 minutes. The SHO verified this to me.”

Yet it was the “death by selfie” story that all of big media, including The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, and NewsX carried, even though it later emerged that Mehta did not even have her phone with her when she slipped. Only IBN7, E24 Rajasthan and Rajasthan Patrika got in touch with the family to confirm the reports.

To counter the media narrative and substantiate their claims, Mehta’s friends uploaded images of the original First Information Report (FIR). It does not mention anything about Mehta falling from a lighthouse.

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After this Reddit post by one of Mehta’s friends got circulated widely, HT, OneIndia and ANI took down the original story and ToI, The Hindu, NewsX and Scoopwhoop have published corrected versions of the story.Aajtak had the wrong story up on YouTube until earlier today.

The question, though, is how the incorrect story got published in the first place. With only three media outlets making the effort to contact the family and those who were with Mehta at the time of her death, most trusted the reports of those who were the first to report the incident – local Kannada news channels.

Sahilonline, a news website based out of Bhatkal (Uttara Kannada), was one of the early movers and reported the incorrect version of Mehta’s story. It was later taken down when Mehta’s friends got in touch with the web portal. Editor Inayatullah Gawai told Newslaundry that his website reported what they saw on television. “We saw it first as breaking news on TV9,” said Gawai. “Then other local Kannada channels also started reporting the incident.”

When contacted, TV9 reporter Sandeep Sagar refused to accept that his version of the story was false. Saying that the information was sourced from locals, he reiterated the refuted story. “She fell from the lighthouse,” he said. “Because of that, the police also visited the spot.”

Even though some media houses have retracted the false story, Dr Mehta feels it isn’t enough. He plans to sue IndiaTV and perhaps ToI too because according to him, “they haven’t regretted or apologised” and because he wants to set a precedent. He plans to file a criminal defamation case. “We have decided that we will not take it lying down,” said the grieving father. “It is a matter of prestige of Pranita Mehta.”

Whether or not Dr Mehta carries through with his threat, the way this incident has been reported flashes warning signs for the Indian media. Sensationalising has been part of the package of a certain section of journalism since the inception of the fourth estate. However, the pace and pressure of online journalism is clearly leading to media outlets dismissing some critically important aspects of the trade. Add to that the eagerness to put out clickbait and favouring speedy publishing over fact-checking, and you have the horribly mangled and fictionalised version of Mehta’s tragic demise.

Ironically, it’s the younger medium of the internet — which the news media is trying to adapt to with stories like the one that was initially published about Mehta’s demise — that is acting as journalism’s invigilator.

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