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Journalist Burned Alive In India For Facebook Post Exposing Corruption

arnott writes: Journalist Jagendra Singh used a Facebook page to expose corruption in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. Though he posted under a pseudonym, he was quickly found and burned alive by police, allegedly on the order of the minister accused. He died a week later from his injuries. This is not the first case of a journalist being attacked in this state. Amnesty International had urged the local government to launch an official investigation, and now five policemen and a politician have been brought up on murder charges. What can Facebook or other companies do to help these journalists report on corruption in a safe manner?

39 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. Burning people? by MobSwatter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Perhaps India should look into the US 2nd amendment. Moral majority prefer better living conditions for everyone, corruption apposes that, be messy but the smart money is on the masses.

    1. Re:Burning people? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Funny

      And right now, they could buy Colt really cheap.

    2. Re:Burning people? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      India actually has some reasonably peppy militia groups(naxalites being the most prominent; but hardly the only ones). Unfortunately, the response has been less "Oh gosh, we'd better start taking the people's concerns seriously!" and more "Per the powers granted under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967; the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act, 1985, and the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002; if you happen to 'disappear' after a run-in with the cops, or your body shows up unannounced at the morgue with signs of torture and a bullet in its head, we can just say you were a terrorist and drop the issue with impunity".

      It's not like all of India is run this way, any more than all US police forces spend all their time shooting blacks and seizing assets; but there are places(Uttar Pradesh is a good candidate to be one of them) where you are liable to get some really, really, bad news about how 'rule of law' actually works if you cross the wrong local strongman.

    3. Re:Burning people? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's not like all of India is run this way

      India is actually becoming much less corrupt, and for a reason that should make us nerds happy: technology. India runs vast welfare schemes, including subsidized rice and fuel, and guaranteed work programs. In the past, these were done on a cash basis, and hopelessly corrupted, with each layer of authorities skimming off their percentage, until only a fraction reached the poor. But the cash has been replaced with a combination ID and debit card that cuts out all the intermediaries. This has weakened corrupt networks, and raised people's expectations, so they are demanding cleaner government in other areas. The Internet, and especially social media, has made exposing corruption much easier. Sites like I Paid a Bribe are very popular in India.

      It is sad that this journalist was killed, but it is actually a sign of progress, because at least the crooks saw him as a viable threat. A decade ago he would have just been ignored.

    4. Re:Burning people? by vivaoporto · · Score: 2
      Lifted from the wikipedia article on the US 2nd amendment to illustrate the point being made:

      In 1792, Tench Coxe made the following point in a commentary on the Second Amendment:[121]

      As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.

      [121] "Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution," Federal Gazette, June 18, 1792, at 2, col. 1

      The 2nd amendment was not created to rectify a corrupt and unjust government but (along with the proposal of a weak "standing army") to prevent one from falling into corruption and injustice.

      For all intents and purposes the current law enforcement apparatus is the equivalent of the standing army of that time. There was no public police force before the 19th century, the task of enforcing the law and keeping the peace war performed by the same forces that fought the wars.

      See, for instance, the part played by the British Army in the 1768 Boston Massacre and compare to the current events:

      British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation.

      Amid ongoing tense relations between the population and the soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry, who was subjected to verbal abuse and harassment. He was eventually supported by eight additional soldiers, who were subjected to verbal threats and thrown objects.

      They fired into the crowd, without orders, instantly killing three people and wounding others. Two more people died later of wounds sustained in the incident.

      The crowd eventually dispersed after Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson promised an inquiry, but reformed the next day, prompting the withdrawal of the troops to Castle Island.

      Eight soldiers, one officer, and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder. Defended by the lawyer and future American president, John Adams, six of the soldiers were acquitted, while the other two were convicted of manslaughter and given reduced sentences.

      The second amendment is supposed to be a deterrent, the insurance that prevents a tyrannical government to defraud the "consent of the governed", the ticket to last option.

      Option that, when redeemed, consists by definition in treason against ones government and the name for its use is revolution.

      Advocating for giving the 2nd amendment rights to a country where corruption is already an issue, where the injustice of the government (at least in the level discussed in the article) is already present and where a standing army is already formed and loyal to the government (in the article case, the police force) is the exactly same as calling for a armed uprising against the government.

      One should be very cautious of that because in some countries (India, for instance), it is a crime to incite or even support such revolutions, even online.

    5. Re:Burning people? by Totenglocke · · Score: 2

      Except it's perfectly legal in the US for a woman to rape her husband, both literally and financially.

      --
      "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
    6. Re:Burning people? by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 3

      Why? Because those people are clearly of insufficient value to be considered viable, deemed so by the All Jerking Invisible Hand of the Holy Market?

      Viewing the poverty line as if it were made of piano wire is a dangerous thing, especially since with the increasing levels of automation in the world, it will continue to sweep towards the right of the income curve.

    7. Re:Burning people? by Totenglocke · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, because women initiating 70% of divorces and being treated beyond favorably by the divorce / family courts aren't well documented facts. When there's a greater than 50% chance that you will get divorced and she'll end up with at least 2/3 of your money / assets, any man who decides to get married is an utter moron.

      --
      "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
    8. Re:Burning people? by itsenrique · · Score: 2

      The .45 or the 40 ounce?

    9. Re:Burning people? by Rakarra · · Score: 4, Funny

      The .45 or the 40 ounce?

      You got two hands, right?

  2. Nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not up to Facebook to do anything, other than comply with the applicable laws of the country they're located in. If the company inserted itself into a local and controversial political problem, then it could be putting its own employees at risk.

    1. Re:Nothing by rhazz · · Score: 5, Informative

      Seems pretty obvious too. Facebook is a social media platform with policies specifically stating they want people to use their real identities. Facebook is not a whistle-blowing platform. Isn't that what wiki-leaks is for?

    2. Re:Nothing by Penguinisto · · Score: 2

      Wikileaks was indeed built for anonymous disclosure, but Facebook has the audience; if you want to expose corruption, which site provides the widest dissemination?

      Personally, I am firmly convinced that anonymity should be permitted (with few and obvious exceptions) on any web platform, and expressly for this purpose. It's not up to Facebook (or any other website owner) to provide a means to intimidate folks who actually do speak truth to power (as opposed to the trite over-use of the phrase here in the US by certain parties.)

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  3. Best case for encryption, ever by WOOFYGOOFY · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is exactly why strong encryption is a non-negotiable right. Without it, you'll be killed for your words, opinions and beliefs.

    1. Re:Best case for encryption, ever by fustakrakich · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Good idea. Put out a message nobody can read.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    2. Re:Best case for encryption, ever by WOOFYGOOFY · · Score: 2

      So seriously, you don't get the connection between non-attributability of authorship and encryption? You thought I was saying "encrypt the story", not "encrypt the source of the story"?

      Seriously .. or this was a joke?

    3. Re:Best case for encryption, ever by WOOFYGOOFY · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I clearly need to be more detailed in my comments. My bad. See two comments aboe you for connection between encryption and anonymity.

      Encryption -not of content (the story) but of internet connections- is what permits people to post and read online anonymously.

      If people can find out what your IP address is or otherwise get at what computer you were using to author the story then they have an excellent chance at identifying you. To defeat this and remain anonymous, encryption is used by software like TOR to hopelessly obscure the actual source of the computer.

      If you surf using some form of encryption to hide your actual IP address it makes it hard for low-level bad guys, even ones with govt. connections, to know who you are.

      Of course very powerful goverments like the US can track you, absolutely using a VPN (we know this from Snowden) and probably even TOR can't protect you anymore - that is just my best guess given how TOR works and the what resources that government has at its disposal.

      But it takes a nation-state level effort to do that. This guy was not killed by someone with access to that kind of power.

      HTH

    4. Re:Best case for encryption, ever by dave420 · · Score: 3, Informative

      None of that would have helped this guy. None of it. He put his own photo on his "anonymous" page. I agree with your stance on encryption fully, but this is not a case where it would have mattered a single jot.

  4. Facebook anonymity by LeadSongDog · · Score: 2

    A journalist who thought that he would be anonymous on Facebook? Really? His intentions may have been good, but I'm inclined to doubt his perspicacity.

    --
    Oh, I'm sorry sir, I thought you were referring to me, Mr. Wensleydale.
    1. Re:Facebook anonymity by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Don't teach your journalists how to avoid being murdered. Teach your boys not to murder to gain and remain in power.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    2. Re:Facebook anonymity by tnk1 · · Score: 2

      I'd stick with the teaching of the journalists to avoid being killed, if I were you. Being a psychopath isn't exactly a course of study in school. Even for boys.

      Journalists need to stay alive to expose those people.

  5. India is RL "Judge Dredd" by Qbertino · · Score: 5, Informative

    Indias legal excecutive is basically "Judge Dredd" in real-life. Courts are so behind, murder investigations and convictions can take up to 25 years before even starting. The police solve this on their own to maintain order by staging "encounters" for people who've killed more than once. They basically find you, arrest you for something petty they can pin on you and then shoot you for resisting/trying to flee.

    With such factually absolute powers for the police, they're bound to turn corrupt.

    I'd say it's no surprise that in such a system an exposure of police corruption get's you killed mafia style.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:India is RL "Judge Dredd" by WOOFYGOOFY · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Exactly, for American readers, it's like the Wild West. Courts are literally packed smoked filled rooms filled with defendants, police, lawyers and a judge all shouting and screaming and the defendant is basically unable to decipher what or when the judge is handling his case except his lawyer comes up periodically and tells him something .

      Cases take years and decades to go tot trial and in the meantime, anything goes usually, dependant on the connections and wealth of the defendant. IF yo're poor, you're fucked. If it's high profile, you have a right to a speedy kangaroo court. If you're rich with connections , you skate.

      I know people who legally own homes and property that other just random people have taken up residency in and there's really nothing they can do about it. They can take them to court but it will take years and years for the case to be heard and in the meantime, those random people are just go non living there.

      It's like that.

  6. Re:one should note: governments are same everywher by cyberchondriac · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wow, that didn't long for the irrelevant anti-US swipe, just 5 posts. This has jack-squat to do with the US, you know. Isn't this brown-skinned people oppressing other brown-skinned people? Can't deal with that truth though, so let's make an obligatory mention of the "evil" US.. And if you'd care to look at real statistics, cops don't routinely kill "innocent" people; incidents have occurred, yes, but it's certainly not a matter of policy or even general practice. The media might have you think otherwise, but they promote the hell out of sensational dirt, it's good for their bottom line, which is all they really care about.

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  7. Wasn't Really Trying to Hide in the First Place... by Koreantoast · · Score: 2

    Even though he went by an alias on Facebook, he did post his own picture on the account. I don't think he was even seriously trying to conceal who he was; he probably didn't expect the corrupt official to take such a drastic step. Given that case, there's nothing that Facebook can do in this kind of situation.

  8. Re:Wasn't Really Trying to Hide in the First Place by Koreantoast · · Score: 4, Informative

    Should add... if you actually read the article, the "pseudonym" he was posting under was nothing more than the title of "Shahjahanpur (City) News" with his photograph right there on it. He just setup a second Facebook account act as a news feed.

  9. Re:one should note: governments are same everywher by TWX · · Score: 2

    Plus there's murder charges in this case in India...

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  10. Firewall by penguinoid · · Score: 2

    If you're not very careful with your security, you might get burned.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  11. Re:The mafia state by ultranova · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Breaking news: Organized crime runs the world.

    If it did, it wouldn't be crime, now would it? A state openly run by the Mafia would simply be your run-of-the-mill military dictatorship or warlord-ridden anarchy, depending on whether a single faction was supreme or not.

    No, what we're seeing here is the difference between official and real culture. That is what corruption is, at its core: a culture tries to pretend it's something else - something better - than it actually is, a kind of "werewolf state" which mauls people by night and damns wolfs by day. Everyone goes along with the lie because when someone points out the hypocrisy, the mask of decency slips and the beast comes out.

    But when the beast is out, it can be seen by all. That is its weakness. People can no longer pretend everything is fine; they must either openly submit to the wolf - and accept they're going to be devoured - or fight to rid themselves of it. And this beast has no claws of its own, only those lent to it by its slaves. Knowing that, it too must choose whether to strike back and risk breaking its spell entirely, or give up some of its malevolence and become less like a wolf and more like a human.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  12. Re:The mafia state by St.Creed · · Score: 2

    The minister who ordered the murder must have felt totally untouchable.

    I think he felt totally Brahmin, actually.

    But let's just say it's not a complete surprise that Uttar Pradesh has a very lively Maoist rebellion going on. I'd probably join them, if I was a peasant living there.

    --
    Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
  13. Re:Wasn't Really Trying to Hide in the First Place by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2

    I found his Facebook page. Not only did he have his photo, but his full name on the page as well. If posting under your real name counts as a pseudonym, then I guess I'm posting under a pseudonym as well. *sits back confident that nobody will EVER guess my real name*

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  14. This sounds crass but... by andyring · · Score: 2

    Why is it Facebook's responsibility?

  15. Re:time for guns by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 2

    > there's even less you could do against a bomber or a tank.

    This is presumably why the US are arming police forces all over the country with ex-military surplus.

    They're preparing for the inevitable war against their populace. We should probably be infiltrating the police.

  16. There's corruption in Uttar Pradesh? by chilenexus · · Score: 2

    That's unheard of!
    http://www.damninteresting.com...
    Unless you count the thousands of still-living people there that have been declared legally dead by bribed public officials and stripped of their property.

  17. Re:The UK doesn't have a 2nd. by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Russia had gun control when Stalin was busy killing off - what? 20 million people?

    China had gun control while it experienced it's revolution, also while it suffered the Japanese occupation, and during the time the Communists were killing off yet more millions.

    Hitler enjoyed the benefit of gun control laws.

    Pol Pot didn't have to worry about an armed citizenry.

    I think the numbers support the necessity of gun rights. The difference between a free man and a slave is the right to bear arms.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  18. Re:The UK doesn't have a 2nd. by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Actually - yes I am. I watch people avoiding the police. I watch people saying "Yes sir" and "No sir" to the police. I watch people groveling in front of the police.

    I address police in one way, and one way only. I address them as equals. I am a free man. Cop says "Stop!" I say, "What for?"

    Delusional, you say? The numbers support my view. The cops don't come out into the rural parts of the country, and throw concussion grenades into cribs, killing little babies. They only do that in the cities, where hoplophobes have passed laws prohibiting peole from having weapons of their own. Tamir Rice wasn't executed in rural Kentucky, or Arkansas, or Texas. He was executed in a liberal stronghold, Cleveland, Ohio.

    Delusional. Liberal gun control policies are most definitely a failure in the United States of America. Do a Google search for US cities with the highest crime and highest murder rates. All of them have very strict gun control laws.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  19. Sickening by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 2

    And if you'd care to look at real statistics, cops don't routinely kill "innocent" people

    "innocent" being Aryan-code for "white".

  20. Re:The UK doesn't have a 2nd. by Rakarra · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually - yes I am. I watch people avoiding the police. I watch people saying "Yes sir" and "No sir" to the police. I watch people groveling in front of the police.

    I address police in one way, and one way only. I address them as equals. I am a free man. Cop says "Stop!" I say, "What for?"

    Let me guess. You're a white guy.

  21. Re:The UK doesn't have a 2nd. by Copid · · Score: 2

    Actually - yes I am. I watch people avoiding the police. I watch people saying "Yes sir" and "No sir" to the police. I watch people groveling in front of the police.

    If there's one thing the data has shown us, it's that we're all much safer in an interaction with the police if they honestly believe we might shoot them.

    I address police in one way, and one way only. I address them as equals. I am a free man. Cop says "Stop!" I say, "What for?"

    Do you reach into your waistband, just to make sure they know that you're not going to take any crap?

    --
    An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"