Filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Mira Nair, and actor Sonam Kapoor along with several others signed an open letter condemning the media’s ‘witch-hunt’ of Rhea Chakraborty in the coverage of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death investigation, news agency PTI reported.

Film personalities like Freida Pinto, Zoya Akhtar, Farhan Akhtar, Alankrita Shrivastava, Gauri Shinde, Reema Kagti, Ruchi Narain, Rasika Dugal, Nitya Mehra, Amruta Subhash, Mini Mathur, Dia Mirza, Kubbra Sait along with several others signed the letter that requests the media to ‘hunt news, not women.’

Chakraborty was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB) in connection with drug-related allegations pertaining to the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, reported PTI.

The open letter which is addressed to “the dear news media of India” was published on a blog called Feminist Voices and it has over 2,500 signatories from all works of life.

The letter reads, “Dear news media of India. We are worried about you. Are you feeling ok? “Because, as we watch your witch-hunt of Rhea Chakraborty, we cannot understand why you have abandoned every professional ethic of journalism, every tenet of human decency and dignity and chosen instead to physically assault a young woman with your camera crews, endlessly violate her privacy and work overtime on false accusations and moralistic innuendo for a drama of ‘Rhea ko phasao.”

The letter accuses Indian media of being obsessed with Rhea and point-blank accuses journalists of abandoning every professional ethic of journalism. The letter similarly accuses Indian media of abandoning every shred of human decency and dignity. 

The letter further states “We know you can be different — because we have seen you be kind and respectful to the Salman Khans and Sanjay Dutts of this world, urging us to think of their families, fans and careers.”

Drawing parallels with the coverage of cases of actors Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt, the letter urges the media to show the same amount of restrain and respect towards Chakraborty.

The letter further states, “It is easy to victimise a young woman because there are so many people who already disbelieve, slut-shame and abuse women, for their smallest freedoms. It is certainly cheaper than doing actual stories about a host of issues from GDP to health, currently confronting us.”

The letter also condemns the media’s promotion of dangerous stereotypes of ‘vishkanyas’ and ‘dayans.’ It also requests the media not to promote and peddle regressive stereotypes pertaining to mental health and depression.

“We write to ask you, the news media, to stop this unfair witch-hunt of Rhea Chakraborty and to stop fuelling moral polarities of good women to be deified and bad women to be crucified which endangers all women. We write to ask you to do the right and responsible thing. Your jobs. Hunt news, not women,” the letter states.