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| Europe |
| France Prohibits Non-Journos From Reporting Violence |
| 2007-03-06 |
| The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday. The council chose an unfortunate anniversary to publish its decision approving the law, which came exactly 16 years after Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King were filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday in the night of March 3, 1991. The officers' acquittal at the end on April 29, 1992 sparked riots in Los Angeles. If Holliday were to film a similar scene of violence in France today, he could end up in prison as a result of the new law, said Pascal Cohet, a spokesman for French online civil liberties group Odebi. And anyone publishing such images could face up to five years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (US$98,537), potentially a harsher sentence than that for committing the violent act. Senators and members of the National Assembly had asked the council to rule on the constitutionality of six articles of the Law relating to the prevention of delinquency. The articles dealt with information sharing by social workers, and reduced sentences for minors. The council recommended one minor change, to reconcile conflicting amendments voted in parliament. The law, proposed by Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy, is intended to clamp down on a wide range of public order offenses. During parliamentary debate of the law, government representatives said the offense of filming or distributing films of acts of violence targets the practice of "happy slapping," in which a violent attack is filmed by an accomplice, typically with a camera phone, for the amusement of the attacker's friends. The broad drafting of the law so as to criminalize the activities of citizen journalists unrelated to the perpetrators of violent acts is no accident, but rather a deliberate decision by the authorities, said Cohet. He is concerned that the law, and others still being debated, will lead to the creation of a parallel judicial system controlling the publication of information on the Internet. The government has also proposed a certification system for Web sites, blog hosters, mobile-phone operators and Internet service providers, identifying them as government-approved sources of information if they adhere to certain rules. The journalists' organization Reporters Without Borders, which campaigns for a free press, has warned that such a system could lead to excessive self censorship as organizations worried about losing their certification suppress certain stories. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #7 I've read two sets of opinions on this: A) The French govt. is trying to deal with on-going riots / car-burnings by suppressing reporting of same. B) The are trying to deal with the problem of 'Happy Slapping' - whereby some young thugs beat the crap out of some random passerby, film it on their cell-phone and send the video to other thugs to score thug points. If it's 'A' - France is in serious trouble Denial is never an effective solution to a problem. If 'B' - how 'bout charging the perps with assault and using the video as evidence. Sheesh! |
| Posted by: DMFD 2007-03-06 22:40 |
| #6 The law, proposed by Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy, is intended to clamp down on a wide range of public order offenses. This is the man who would be President. It's pretty amazing that the Presidency of France has boiled down to handful of bozos and misfits. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-03-06 22:24 |
| #5 Why not film whatever "violence" they see and then e-mail the film to an acquaintence in the US to pose on the Internet? Let the Phroggies try to prosecute the American who posted it. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2007-03-06 22:12 |
| #4 The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. So if a coupla Froggy "professional journalists" start whaling the piss outta each other, the average Joe can feel free to film away and get it on Youtube or something? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-03-06 21:45 |
| #3 I wonder if "professional journalists" in the darkish place will see this as an insult. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-03-06 20:27 |
| #2 Wow! Another new all-time low for France... and, unlike a lot of other Americans, I actually rather like France. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2007-03-06 20:20 |
| #1 "...professional journalists..." Now there's a phrase to chill the hearts of people that believe in freedom of speech. Who, pray tell, signs the accreditation, hmmm? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2007-03-06 19:59 |