In this day and age, consent seems to have become a factor that is hardly ever taken into account. Recently, a post on Instagram about a story of two sisters went viral. They wished to simply dine at a reputed hotel in Colombo, but were videoed by a customer in a serious breach of privacy. According to the post, one of the sisters stood behind the customer to observe what he was doing as she felt unsafe, only to see videos of herself on his screen. When they made a complaint to the management, they had simply been told that the man in question was a regular, and very influential customer. The management of the said reputed hotel has since put out a statement saying they’ve taken the necessary steps to reach out to the guest in concern and resolved the matter directly with her. They also said they’re looking into the misconduct of the guest in concern and are looking at how they can sensitise their employees to deal with situations like these.
The Morning Brunch spoke to relevant personalities on how establishments should handle such situations, and what action citizens can take when faced with such uncomfortable situations.
A customer’s safety is priority
An establishment not taking action against such a situation is absurd. “Irrespective of who the customer is, if the customer has done something wrong by invading the privacy of another customer, then action should be taken by the establishment,” noted a well-known personality in the hospitality field, who wished to remain anonymous. He stated that there is a law in the country for a reason, adding: “If these two ladies had the possibility to make a police complaint, then ideally the management of the establishment should, to a certain extent, assist the ladies in this.” He also commented that regardless of it being a hotel or a public place, the management can’t take the law into their own hands, suggesting that they should have spoken to the misbehaving customer and made a police complaint, or helped the ladies to do so. In an ideal situation, the establishment should have taken a stand against this unacceptable behaviour, and put their customers safety and privacy first.
A legal stand
Being videoed without consent is recognised as a form of sexual harassment in Sri Lanka. Speaking to Attorney-at-law Swasthika Arulingam, she explained what legal measures these two women or anyone faced with such an issue can take. “The affected women can make a complaint to the Police for sexual harassment, which is an offence in Sri Lanka under Section 345 of the Penal Code.” She also revealed that allegedly, the man who had taken the video is reported to have forwarded it to a WhatsApp group, therefore a complaint can also be made to the Cyber Crimes Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department to investigate as to why he was forwarding videos of these women to a WhatsApp group.
It’s an indication of corruption
Speaking to women’s rights activist Jessica Fernando on this issue, she stated: “They covered for a pervert because he’s connected to higher-ups and they actually made excuses to the women, saying that he was a regular customer, which is a big no-no.” Unfortunately, she noted that this isn’t even the first time he has done such a misdemeanour, and that there are several women who have come forward saying that this man is a regular and has been recording women for a while.
She stated: “This establishment has been enabling a regular pervert; God knows where he has been putting these videos of women without their consent.”
At the end of the day, Fernando observed, the way this establishment has been responding to this crisis is also quite dodgy, simply because they just copy-pasted the same response to everybody individually, insead of briefing the steps they’re taking in order to avoid such a situation in future. “They should apologise publicly for continuing to let this happen, which they have not done as of yet,” she said, adding further that on top of this, they are allegedly collecting contact details of everybody on social media who expressed their displeasure on this issue, which she finds highly dodgy, given the fact that this perpetrator is connected to politicians.
Fernando stated that the women have two options: “They could sue the establishment or issue a police comment. But given the nature of the country, making a police entry might not take them anywhere, but this is the first step towards legal justice.”
She advises women that have gone through similar issues to keep talking about it; without hiding the fact that this happened to them. She urges the general public to make sure that they are willing to speak about it without worrying about legal repercussions: “I’m sure there are plenty of people who will support you.”
Conceding that there are plenty of companies who would get things wrong, she said: “That is fine, everybody gets things wrong, it’s how you respond that matters. Show sincerity and not co-operate manhandling.”
