“Story Killers”. Like other journalists around the world, Indian Gauri Lankesh was murdered in 2017 after being the target of a false countryside. “MO12345LEMONDE” and the forbidden stories consortium investigated this infox industry.
By Phineas RUCKERT (Forbidden Stories) and MO12345LEMONDE
On September 5, 2017, Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh returned home, in Bangalore, capital of the state of Karnataka, in the south of the country, after having put the last touch to a article whose publication was scheduled for two days later in his weekly, Gauri Lankesh Patrike. Titled “the age of the age of the age of the age of False information “, the text returned in detail to the viral dissemination of a rumor launched by the Hindu conservatives, accusing the liberal opposition of censorship. He showed that the information, emanating from the Ultrapartisan Postcard News site, was false and had been widely disseminated by the militants of the Indian People’s Party (BJP, Hindu nationalists, in power) and far -right activists.
When he arrived in front of his bungalow, in a quiet street far from the noisy center of the Indian capital of technologies, Gauri Lankesh was hit by four fist shots. She died instantly. Two men, whose image was captured by video surveillance cameras, fled at motorcycle.
The assassination of M me Lankesh is the culmination of a long process, in which the dissemination of false information and the radicalization of political activists play a central role. Forbidden Stories, the non-profit association, based in France, which continues the work of journalists killed or silenced, inquired for several months with around twenty partners, including MO12345lemonde, on the providers of disinformation , within the project called “Story Killers”. And, more particularly, on mercenaries who provide their services to the most offering to manipulate public debate, attack dissident votes and discredit the media and journalists.
A year before his death, Gauri Lankesh had been the victim of a violent online campaign, threatened to the point of resolving himself, reluctantly, to set up a security camera at his home. The two men who killed her in front of her house were quickly found by the police. They are waiting for their trials in prison. But, behind those who pressed the trigger, are the misinformators who orchestrated these attacks, who have escaped prosecution.
video manipulated on YouTube to stir up hatred
Since the death of M Me Lankesh, postcard news, the media in which she was investigating, has only growed, becoming one of the main cherished sites of the Indian right. Throughout the investigation into this assassination, he conducted a real campaign to try to bring the hat to the left extremists, in defiance of all the evidence. The site owner, Mahesh Vikram Hegde, is close to the management of the BJP: he founded a communication company with a ministerial party advisor and is now the head of an online media empire. Arrested in 2018 for broadcasting false information, Mr. Hegde had boasted, with the police, of having “the blessing of several right -wing leaders”, and one of the lawyers who defended it is responsible for The youth branch of BJP.
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