For the last several days, the two most talked-about stories on social media have been the story of the young Tehelka journalist who has accused her editor-in-chief of repeated incidents of sexual assault, and in the last two days, the story of 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar who was murdered five years ago in May. What is common between the two cases is the character assassination of both the young women not just by rabid accounts online in the case of the Tehelka journalist, but by the state and in many instances by the mainstream media as well. Can we simply violate an individual's privacy and assassinate their character? Can we hide behind the veneer of fake and anonymous accounts of social media to make slanderous remarks? Are we liable under the law? What does this mean for a free and fair trial and have we ended up compromising the rights of the accused by hindering that? We discuss.
