YouTube-Using Russian Police Officer Fired For Whistleblowing

from the careful-where-you-whistleblow dept

Mon, Nov 9th 2009 8:30pm — Mike Masnick

One of the great things about the internet these days is that it gives a platform for people who had no voice before to speak out. Of course, there are certain risks associated with that. Apparently a police officer in the Russian port of Novorossiisk put up a YouTube video accusing his superiors of corruption. The video got lots of attention (over 200,000 views) leading Russia's Interior Ministor (who is responsible for the police) to start a probe. That probe apparently lasted all of two hours before it ended and the police officer who made the video was fired. Of course, many will assume that this was punishing a whistleblower, which certainly sounds plausible -- though, an argument could also be made that if the guy really was making stuff up, that's pretty bad as well. Either way, it is a reminder that just because you have a platform to speak out (whether legitimately or not), it doesn't mean there aren't consequences for doing so (as unfair as those consequences might be in some cases).

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Filed Under: consequences, free speech, police, russia, whistle blowing, youtube

9 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2009 @ 8:34pm

To be fair, 2 hours is a lot longer than France's 5 minutes.
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Robert Ring (profile), 9 Nov 2009 @ 8:39pm

This doesn't sound like Russia.

Oh wait, yeah it does.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2009 @ 8:46pm

"Either way, it is a reminder that just because you have a platform to speak out (whether legitimately or not), it doesn't mean there aren't consequences for doing so (as unfair as those consequences might be in some cases)."

I think this defeats the purpose of freedom of speech though. Freedom of speech means that you can speak out without consequences. Otherwise anyone technically has freedom of speech but they must face the consequences afterwords (ie: jail or execution). Then again this is Russia, who said anything about freedom of speech. Then again, I'm not sure how much better America is, it doesn't seem that far fetched for a police officer to be fired in America for public whistle blowing as well (as some articles on techdirt seem to suggest).
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Yogi, 9 Nov 2009 @ 9:34pm

Lucky guy
The fact that this policeman is still alive is testament to the power of democracy in Russia.

Really.
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Mike Zachaczewski, 9 Nov 2009 @ 9:47pm

Gotta Love Russia
He's lucky fired is the only thing he got
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2009 @ 10:07pm

Widespread corruption exposes you!
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Nov 2009 @ 10:08pm

you know freedom of speech is a US right, right? Not sure that applies in russia. Granted i've no idea for sure that it doesn't but many americans seem to forget they do things differently elsewhere.
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Barbossa, 10 Nov 2009 @ 5:30am

the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.
It's a good thing that the good old us of a has whistle blowing laws that protect all of us who may think of such action ... err wait a sec, maybe not so much because the FCC policy against falsification is just a policy and not a "law, rule, or regulation"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Akre
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Vic, 10 Nov 2009 @ 9:05am

I saw that video. Well, just first half of it. It all sounded too familiar that I could not stand watching it and just stopped it. All that he said there is too close to the reality of what is going on in Russian police force.. I am quite inclined to believe his words.

Just being fired - yes, he is lucky. For now... It could have been (maybe it's still coming) a lawsuit against him. In that video he admits that for his latest promotion he had to promise to his superior to jail an innocent man (I suspect in order to cover a high ranking real criminal).

But then again, he may just disappear one day...
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