to disagree with the global naming of the Indian gang rape victim?

[wannaBe]

i've raised this point on twitter and thought I'd bring it here as well...

Today the name of the Indian girl who died following a gang rape was published in the Sunday People. Since then there have been various tweets saying "the victim of the gang rape was , please rt," etc. I am almost awaiting the arrival of a facebook page for people to "like".

Now, as someone pointed out to me earlier, it's general practice to name murder victims, but fact is, it's not general practice to do it in this way and to almost turn the victim into some kind of celebrity figure, based on the number of retweets/likes on facebook.

This girl was the victim of a hideous crime. She is not the first, and sadly will almost certainly not be the last. but to name her in this way just seems to cheapen what she has been through, and turn it into some kind of social media circus.

It would IMO have been different if she'd just been named in the news. It's the almost gleaful way in which people are tweeting her name with the added "please RT" that I think makes it horrible.

Originally the argument was that her father had wanted her to be named, but since I originally tweeted about this, the bbc have said that the girll's father has in fact denied giving her name to the press. So it would seem that this idea of publically naming her has been taken on by god-knows-who, and for what?

No worries SP, Mme, just pointing it out.

Mme, that is awful if true (and sounds as if it could be).

Tbh I would want the name out if it were my family member. But I wouldn't want it just for nosey basterds or media vultures to have stories. It would be so she was remembered as a person who lived and had a life. Not about what happened to her.

but that is just speculation MmeL. It's just as disrespectful to assume he wanted her named when he has stated he didn't.

The bbc have published that he didn't want her named. We must surely assume that this was the case rather than putting our own spin on it to justify the way in which this has turned out, iyswim?

I don't think she was assuming? She did say 'perhaps' rather than 'oh it must be this'.

I first saw a link from the Mirror with photos of the father and saying he wanted his daughter named. This is still on the Mirror site and there are details of the interview with the friend who was also attacked on the bus including his name. All the posts I've seen have been very respectful so far and the tweets I've seen have been using #wewillnotforget. Although I share the view that it is more respectful to be able to use a name than "the Delhi gang rape murder victim" I am very saddened that this might be against the wishes of the family.

Sorry got waylaid and crossposted. That's obviously even worse if MmeL is correct.

I wasn't speculating, only trying to understand why there is the confusion. Other news outlets are still reporting her name - from what I can see it is only the BBC who have retracted the story.

It may be that the BBC lawyers are more cautious and have advised them to pull the story, and other legal teams are less worried.

It has been an open secret for days - too many friends and family would have known. As you have noted, it has turned into a media circus. I imagine the pressure on the family to reveal her name, or give more info about her life, had been immense.

I was under the impression the father wanted her name known

www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1311221--father-of-delhi-gang-rape-victim-we-want-the-world-to-know-her-real-name