This news disturbs me greatly. I hope you all will publicize this action by the French government to your respective friends and associates so that making laws like this doesn't go unnoticed.
The grounds for the law are based on the government's assertion that people are committing violent crimes so that their friends can film the act. While there may be a few examples of this happening around the world, the more likely intent of such a law is to suppress the voice of people critical to the government and specifically the gathering of evidence of violent crimes perpetrated by government agencies.
Today is a dark day in the history of French freedom of the press.
Link to the Reporters without Borders (sans Frontiers) story
Thanks to:
By Peter Sayer, IDG News Service for reporting on it. An excerpt (with added reference links) follows:
March 06, 2007
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 ($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.
Also the comments off of this original article from MacWorld (where I found it!)
Link to the French Law...
Excerpt:
Law concerning public security and the prevention of delinquency
The constitutional articles concerning the new law are the following:
« Art. 32. – Lorsqu’un document fixé par un procédé déchiffrable par voie électronique en mode analogique ou en mode numérique présente un danger pour la jeunesse en raison de son caractère pornographique, le support et chaque unité de son conditionnement doivent comporter de façon visible, lisible et inaltérable, la mention “mise à disposition des mineurs interdite (article 227-24 du code pénal)”.
« Lorsqu’un document fixé par un procédé identique peut présenter un risque pour la jeunesse en raison de la place faite au crime, à la violence, à l’incitation à l’usage, à la détention ou au trafic de stupéfiants, à la consommation excessive d’alcool ainsi qu’à la discrimination ou à la haine contre une personne déterminée ou un groupe de personnes, le support et chaque unité de son conditionnement doivent faire l’objet d’une signalétique spécifique au regard de ce risque. Cette signalétique, dont les caractéristiques sont fixées par l’autorité administrative, est destinée à en limiter la mise à disposition à certaines catégories de mineurs, en fonction de leur âge.
Article 32. – When a document, recorded to be electronically legible in analogue or digital format, presents a danger to youth because of its pornographic character, each part of the material must incorporate, in a visible and unalterable manner, the mention: “dissemination to minors forbidden.”
When a document, recorded by this same process, can present a risk to youth because of the place it devotes to crime, violence, the elicitation to the use, the possession or traffic of narcotics, to the excessive consumption of alcohol as well as to discrimination or to hate against a determined person or group of persons, each part of this material must incorporate a specific mention regarding this risk. This mention, of which the characteristics are fixed by the administrative authority, is destined to limit the availability [of this document] to certain categories of minors, contingent on their age.
« Art. 33. – L’autorité administrative peut en outre interdire :
« 1° De proposer, de donner, de louer ou de vendre à des mineurs les documents mentionnés à l’article 32 ;
« 2° D’exposer les documents mentionnés à l’article 32 à la vue du public en quelque lieu que ce soit. Toutefois, l’exposition demeure possible dans les lieux dont l’accès est interdit aux mineurs ;
« 3° De faire, en faveur de ces documents, de la publicité par quelque moyen que ce soit. Toutefois, la publicité demeure possible dans les lieux dont l’accès est interdit aux mineurs.
Article 33. – The administrative authority can also prohibit:
1. To propose, to give, to rent or to sell to minors the documents mentioned in article 32;
2. To expose the documents mentioned in article 32 to public view in any place. However, the exposure [of such documents] is possible in sites to which the access is forbidden to minors.
3. To make, using these documents, advertisements by any means. However, advertisement is possible in sites to which the access is forbidden to minors.
(Thanks Rachel Wimpee for the translation!)
.....and the screw tightens
.....and the screw tightens another turn.....
ok all u lot are stupid my
ok all u lot are stupid my name is billy
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