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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?
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.
This is exactly why strong encryption is a non-negotiable right. Without it, you'll be killed for your words, opinions and beliefs.
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
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.
And right now, they could buy Colt really cheap.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The .45 or the 40 ounce?
You got two hands, right?