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Mother in Goan Tragedy Too Media Savvy [Opinion] Did Fiona MacKeown and her Indian lawyer manipulate the press to their advantage? Email Article Print Article Evaristo Johny Coutinho (jonbon) It's not difficult to understand why support for Fiona MacKeown, the mother of a British teenager murdered in Goa, India, comes mainly from people who haven't met her or personally watched her and her lawyer team in action. For some of us who have watched, it's difficult to miss the disingenuousness after the initial two encounters. For one, MacKeown and her Indian lawyer, Vikram Varma, are a tad too media savvy. They have worked and manipulated the media in their campaign for justice with a great deal of shrewd finesse -- the type of finesse one notices these days with political parties who stage dharnas and vocal protests only after ensuring that every single target rating point-hungry electronic media troupe are in attendance, to capture their simulated "anger" and air it live on television. The protest is faked and the anger is faked, and for those who have to watch such insincerity "go places," the display is disturbing. It's this sort of posturing that makes the MacKeown-Varma campaign a little insincere, and MacKeown and Varma more than a little suspect. As a fellow British media person covering the Scarlett Keeling case and her mother's "campaign" put it: there are no angels in this script. When MacKeown's campaign was just picking up, she already had Britain's Sky Television crew trailing her. MacKeown and Varma made sure there was enough simulated "action" to capture. Varma would arrive at the state secretariat before MacKeown did and keep the media briefed about MacKeown's imminent arrival. When she arrived in a Maruti Esteem, seven smaller children in tow, all of them barefoot, and one of them shirtless, the cameras whirred. The family obliged with some of the angles and postures necessary for television. So did the lawyer. The media, especially the British media, trailing her were led to government offices where meetings were not even scheduled and the resultant long wait was posited as more "examples" of a hardhearted administration that was "harassing the mother." It soon became apparent that the British media were being sold this story a lot more often than the national or local media, for obvious reasons. The Scarlett case was a British cause celebre, and Fiona was cast in the role of avenging mother fighting for justice from a corrupt police and insensitive government. When the first arrest was made, based on MacKeown's insistence on rape and murder charges, the British press was told police had picked up the wrong man, a "small fry," to shield the bigger ones involved. British radio stations began calling up local journalists seeking quotes to buttress claims that "the Goa police were unreliable, and given to catching anybody and framing them." The first man was arrested for statutory rape, since senior officials on the case believed the sexual acts had been consensual. With the second arrest, and murder charges levied against two individuals, MacKeown continued talking about a "cover up and larger cover up," going on to levy accusations against the home minister and Goan police. The evening MacKeown got her summons to depose in the case at the Panaji police station, British media persons were "presold" the story by MacKeown's team that she was going to be "targeted" by police and "arrested for negligence." The British media and an Indian news agency, playing ball, already ran stories of her imminent arrest and targeting by the Goan administration. When she wasn't and it was just a routine recording of a statement, there were no retractions and the Goa administration was further vilified. Varma told the media that the police had not dared to arrest MacKeown because of the large media presence. By now, it was becoming obvious even to more-loyal members of the British media -- who had united uncritically and unquestioningly behind Fiona -- that they were being manipulated rather adroitly. "The MacKeown is going to be arrested" episode was not the only sleight of hand. The British press is regularly being sold stories of how MacKeown was being threatened, how she was offered money for her silence, and most recently that she was forced to go underground because she had exposed the drug nexus -- all of these allegations suitably vague and cleverly unsourced. Michael Mannion, aka Masala Mike -- the British man who left Scarlett to her fate -- addressed the press on how it was so difficult for a witness to give a statement in a "civilized society." When pressed, Mannion said he had no quarrel with the Goa police but had perceived (not actually been threatened, mind you) a threat from his former Goan buddies. It's these numerous sleight of hands to stay in the media spotlight, this constant shifting of the goalposts to keep the media constantly engaged with a new angle, a new twist -- a fresh new allegation of a cover up, of a larger cover up, of a drug link or the involvement of the home minister and Goan police, the news of a Central Bureau of Investigation enquiry or a court challenge, the need for MacKeown to go into hiding, under threat from fresh new villains, Etc. -- that is the cause of MacKeown's portrait of an avenging mother ringing untrue. Sincerity is an intangible trait, but most people can pick up insincerity. To make errors of judgment is forgivable, to be calm and stoic in the face of personal grief is understandable -- but to display no motherly remorse can be very telling indeed. So far MacKeown has expressed no remorse or criticism for her own failings -- she holds herself above reproach, while everyone else in the script is blameworthy. The inconsistencies and "cover-ups" are too many to sustain belief. Scarlett was no drinker or drug taker according to her mother -- the statements of too many people and friends of Scarlett have belied this. Scarlett was left only for a few days with boyfriend Julio Lobo, MacKeown had said. When MacKeown realized that it was culturally unacceptable for a mother to consent to her 15-year-old daughter's live-in relationship, she adroitly changed the story to "I left her with Julio's Catholic aunts." Fiona glossed over details, forgetting to tell the press that Scarlett had been left with no money or cell phone over the three weeks she stayed with Julio and they were in Gokarn. Or that her other small children were often left alone at Curlie's. For media establishments chasing eyeballs, the sensational accusations of MacKeown are just what the doctor prescribed. Critical judgment is suspended. Having said all this, it is hoped that the higher echelons of the police also move to retain credibility. If there were more men involved than the two arrested -- who took advantage of a reckless minor girl that night, in the feudal Indian belief that fallen women are fair game -- they should be arrested and tried. If there were no more men actively involved, the police should be able to say this with conviction, rather than leave it to media speculation. The obvious "boys club" mentality that resulted in the initial cover-up by the Anjuna police, in seeming collaboration with the coroner, has disgraced the department and the state, exposing its flanks. If it is to recover its image even somewhat, justice must not only be done but seen to be done well. There should be no compromise on that. http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=382199&rel_no=1- COMMENT: A perceptive journalist indeed, one who has separated the wheat from the chaff. DEV BOREM KORUM. Gabe Menezes. London, England
