France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence

[USMC - Retired]

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/03/06/franceban/index.php

France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence
By Peter Sayer, IDG News Service

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 on 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.

Yet more proof of how once the right of the people to keep and bear arms has been destroyed, other fundamental rights soon follow.

 

[BobCav]

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 it's a crime to film a violent citizen but not a crime to film a violent journalist?? Where do these people go to school??

This is sickening. We saved them from facism just so they could do this? All those heroes in the Amercian cemeteries in Normandie and the Rhone must be rolling over in their sacred graves...

 

[pacodelahoya]

Well, we all know that firearm confiscations could never happen here.

 

[NoPhilly]

Wow, cross France off the list

I will not consider living there.

This seems like plain, old-fashioned government censorship to me.

What about acting?
If a French drama student films themselves in a "violent" scene and publishes it, what if the .fr.gov doesn't realize it's acting?

 

[Zoogster]

Just one more instance of creating a law that infringes on rights when one is not even necessary to criminalize a behavior. Being an accomplice and filming someone being victimized in a planned criminal attack is already illegal. The reason they cited, of an accomplice particpating by filming for later enjoyment is already illegal and subjects them to prosecution as an accomplice.
Censorship of the entire public by not allowing them to film, or share video of any act of violence commited does not make the people safer. It simply allows censorship to be imposed when desired legaly by the government.

Unfortunately gun owners see much of the same mentality in making things more difficult for law abiding gun owners under the guise of keeping them out of the hands of criminals. Or just like banning guns from certain locales supposedly stops criminals already planning to commit much more serious crimes of such as robbery from breaking a law on thier possession in the location.

Legislators out of touch with reality (or maybe very in touch and simply wanting more absolute power and control) never cease to amaze me with such stupidity.

 

[El Tejon]

France is in a very difficult spot--how do they maintain the Welfare State that they've built all the while not panicking the native French during the violence that is committed by the French immigrants? The solution, as has it alway been, control the information so as not to panic the herd.

The rioting in the Paris suburbs terrified the government, not the violence itself, but the fact that French bloggers and webcasters were bypassing the French media and giving the gritty bare truth. This is unacceptable in the Nanny State and must be prevented.

We'll see more and more of this in Europe and then here. The Internet terrifies them almost as much as our owning guns.

 

[Lucky]

Bob it's not the violence which they're criminalizing, it's people filming it.

 

[BobCav]

Thanks Lucky, I knew that, I was being sarcastic. It was poorly worded.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

First Amendment?

the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images

Repeat after me: France is wise; France is good; France is the perfect model of civilization.

Free speech? We don't need no steenkeeng free speech!

Whew! I'm sure glad that could never happen here.

'Cuz we have the First Amendment. Everybody knows the government will never touch the First Amendment. It's sacred.
What? Second Amendment? Meh.
But the First Amendment? Never.​

 

[mike101]

I wonder if the Germans still want them.

 

[lance22]

They Solved the Problem !

I recall a year ago, Paris and other major cities were overwhelmed by riots instigated by Morrocan youths. But, they have solved the problem and need not worry about it now.

Next time, the state influenced media won't have to worry about the "truth" (as captured by thousands of cell phone cameras) getting in the way of the party line.

Naturally, none of us here give a rat's [deleted] about France, so what is most disturbing is that so many politicos in the USA absolutely idolize Europe as the model of law, government, and civilization.

 

[longeyes]

I agree with El Tejon. The truth would be, well, as a man once said, "inconvenient."

 

[Zundfolge]

So what happens to the store owner that has a security camera that records his store being robbed?


Someone needs to wake the Germans up ... looks like the French need another good whooping.

 

[Diamondback6]

Anonymous, offshore hosting of videos might be a way to solve this problem... France tries to come after an American hosting firm, I think I know what most of us here would say if it was our company...

got YouTube?

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Someone needs to wake the Germans up ... looks like the French need another good whooping.

Post of the Year.

 

[PercyShelley]

France is in a very difficult spot--how do they maintain the Welfare State that they've built all the while not panicking the native French during the violence that is committed by the French immigrants? The solution, as has it alway been, control the information so as not to panic the herd.

The rioting in the Paris suburbs terrified the government, not the violence itself, but the fact that French bloggers and webcasters were bypassing the French media and giving the gritty bare truth. This is unacceptable in the Nanny State and must be prevented.

We'll see more and more of this in Europe and then here. The Internet terrifies them almost as much as our owning guns.

I thought it might be something like that.

Does anyone have some more specifics on why the French would pass such a law?

Anyhow, given this:http://www.ncpa.org/iss/cri/2002/pd051302d.html

I would say the French will have a hell of a time enforcing said law.

 

[bouis]

My understanding is that the [purported] reason for this ban is so-called "happy slapping," where youth gangs will assault a person on the street at random, while an accomplice films it. The various gangs swap films by way of modern technology [internet, ipods, cell phones, etc.] and compete against each other.

 

[Savage3006]

I thought happy slapping was more widespread in the UK than in France.

 

[bouis]

"Happy slapping" is what they call it in the UK. I'm not sure if it's the exact same fad in France but youth violence is a big deal there, and they're apparently just as big on filming it as the hooligans in England & Scotland are.

 

[pacodelahoya]

Happy slap me and I'll happily break your nose.

Even against overwhelming odds, on my tombstone it'll say he went down fighting.

Do these people have no self respect.

 

[El Tejon]

It's not about happy slapping!!!:banghead:

It's about revealing the ugly underbelly of the European Welfare State.

 

[Lonestar]

I'm not a big fan of the French, but this story seems journalisticly biased.

First part of the story brings up Rodney King and says someone COULD be arrested for filming police violence.

The other half of the story get into the reason for passing the law is for "Happy Slapping"

In America if you an your friends decide to assault someone, and you are the guy filming it...guess what, you might get charged with a lesser crime.

I smell a rat...I bet this law has nothing to do with an innocent joe filming violent act.

 

[Savage3006]

Yes I read the text (in French) and it is intended against happy slapping and this sort of stupid behaviors. You can still go out and film the Riot Police and the Arab youths in the suburbs of Paris fighting each other.

 

[pacodelahoya]

Exactly the point I was trying to make El T.

One of them gets slapped, they look around and yell "Make them stop..make them stop!!".

I get happy slapped, the punk would be looking around saying "Make it stop bleeding.."

 

[obxned]

How do you say 'slippery slope' in French??

This should be, but probably won't be, a wake up call for our jounalists who while enjoying the protections of the 1st Amendment are working so hard to do away with the 2nd.