Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was killed by the Taliban during clashes at Spin Boldak district in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Danish Siddiqui was a journalist of international acclaim, and was part of the Reuters team that won the Pulitzer in 2018.
After the news of his death broke out, a photo started doing the rounds of social media, which was said to be the dead body of Siddiqui. And appeals were made that the photograph ought not to be circulated on social media.
In one such case, Stuti Mishra of The Independent shared some of the photographs Danish Siddiqui had captured in order to mourn his demise. Someone replied in the comments with the photograph of Siddiqui’s dead body. To which Mishra responded, “Please dont circulate this picture. I can’t confirm if its actually his but sharing the photo of a deceased person’s body can be triggering for many. And it’s disrespectful to the dead.”
Mujib Mashal of the New York Times, too, pleaded with people to not circulate the image.
Netizens, however, consider such appeals to be a demonstration of unparalleled hypocrisy.
What netizens are saying
People say that Danish Siddiqui sold numerous photographs of funeral pyres of people who had succumbed to Covid-19. Therefore, they argue it is hypocritical for the journalists who were applauding Siddiqui for the same to complain about the picture of his dead body being circulated.
That ghoul had no problem selling pictures of our people cremating their victims of the Wuhan virus from commie China.
— Sanjay Mehta 🇮🇳 (@sanjaymehta) July 16, 2021
This disgusting hypocrite 👇 is offended to see the ghoul’s body shared for free. https://t.co/84VHr7nlwb
Did you or Danish take permission from the families or colleagues of the people who died due to Covid, whose funeral pyres pictures you were selling? https://t.co/uWLlVBe9Xf
— Archi 🇮🇳 (@NonwokeBong) July 16, 2021
The photos from drones of the funeral pyres were taken after the approval from those bereaved families. No? https://t.co/HsLvmtfhvq
— s.m (@samikm_2003) July 16, 2021
People argued that Danish Siddiqui himself had shared photographs of funeral pyres without the consent of the family of the deceased.
When this bought him international fame ,i think he didn’t have anything to objection about sharing his pic.
— 𝘿𝙧. 𝙊𝙟𝙝𝙖 (@AvneeshOjha) July 16, 2021
Afterall he himself practice this recently https://t.co/pLTD4jDvzp pic.twitter.com/P6P7NGfiUf
People that were gleefully printing the images of funeral pyres of poor people on their front pages to make money now want their privacy and rights respected.
— Tarak (@hitmanarch) July 16, 2021
You are treated as you treat others. https://t.co/qOT4URdsLW
One user demonstrated the hypocrisy that was alleged perfectly. Stuti Mishra, who had urged people to not circulate the photograph of the deceased as it would be disrespectful to the dead, had in the first tweet of the thread shared photographs of funeral pyres captured by Danish Siddiqui.
The joke gets better each time you look at it. pic.twitter.com/CDZVcAmTj8
— Yosha🍃 (@Blackdrug_) July 16, 2021
Journalist defends herself
Stuti Mishra, instead of acknowledging that she might have been hypocritical, chose to defend herself accusing others of being “monstrous creatures” and idiots. She said, “Idiots on my timeline don’t know the difference between a photojournalist’s duty to report & their vile tweets circulating unverified photos. I don’t expect them to know. But the fact that with every death these monstrous creatures never wait to add their toxicity still shocks me”.
But people on the internet are not buying her argument. They insist that Danish Siddiqui himself opportunistically minted the misery of people for his own benefit and therefore, there is nothing wrong with sharing the image of his corpse.
