New Law in France! Let the French Bashing begin!!!

[LorDiego01]

I always thought that people who bashed the french were kind of lame. Im not talking about the occasional joke regarding "surplus French military rifles, never fired, looks like they've been dropped once", but about renaming French Fries and boycotting French products..

well, today for lunch, I'll be having me some Freedom Fries.

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.

These people brought us riots to make it a law that you cant get fired from job...
now this...

Is there no way back for these people? No other salvation thats not measured in MegaTons??

effing socialists!!!

[billamj]

I always thought that people who bashed the french were kind of lame. Im not talking about the occasional joke regarding "surplus French military rifles, never fired, looks like they've been dropped once", but about renaming French Fries and boycotting French products..

well, today for lunch, I'll be having me some Freedom Fries.



These people brought us riots to make it a law that you cant get fired from job...
now this...

Is there no way back for these people? No other salvation thats not measured in MegaTons??

effing socialists!!!

Vive La France! This proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that once again they are getting ready to either get their collective asses in another sling they're hoping that we'll dig them out of or going to raise the white flag. Either way, nothing new.

[DrakinClaw]

I always thought that people who bashed the french were kind of lame. Im not talking about the occasional joke regarding "surplus French military rifles, never fired, looks like they've been dropped once", but about renaming French Fries and boycotting French products..

well, today for lunch, I'll be having me some Freedom Fries.



These people brought us riots to make it a law that you cant get fired from job...
now this...

Is there no way back for these people? No other salvation thats not measured in MegaTons??

effing socialists!!!

They are just Obtuse.
Drakin

[Nate]

They are just Obtuse.
Drakin

Obtuse is just a nice word for stupid. And I have no intentions of bing nice to socialists.

[ALS]

I guess the scenes of rioting Muslims burning cars just will not happen ever again.
The old ostrach technique of burying your head in the sand and the social economic problems of their society will go away. I guess those videos have hurt the tourist industry some and we got to put the best view of France forward. Like they say FOLLOW THE MONEY.

[mjd932]

France...enough said

[D-FENS]

This is absolutely Fuct.

When this sort of thing happens, the people won't stop doing what they're doing. They'll simply do more of it. People will be on more of a lookout for potential scenario's and then they'll be published online anonymously.

This is nothing short of amazing although I could see the same thing happening here in the states. Along the same lines but not quite is last week there was fighting in Afghanistan where there were >=10 civilians killed and the military confiscated photographs and video footage from journalists.

BTW, do you have the original link to that article? can you post it?

[crazyyankee]

Oh the French!!! What more can we say? Except in the event you need our military assitance to save your lovely country, please do us a favor and dial
1-800-

873-5377
(Useless)

then dial
628-4667
(Nations)

Please continue to hold, your calll is important to us and we will answer your call in the order it was received. You are caller 1,352,498 and your wait time will be about 3 years. Thank You...

[billamj]

Oh the French!!! What more can we say? Except in the event you need our military assitance to save your lovely country, please do us a favor and dial
1-800-

873-5377
(Useless)

then dial
628-4667
(Nations)

Please continue to hold, your calll is important to us and we will answer your call in the order it was received. You are caller 1,352,498 and your wait time will be about 3 years. Thank You...

That is of course unless there is a D in the oval office, in which case the number moves up to 1 and we get stuck bailing their collective asses out of the fire, AGAIN!

[MarcS]

I'd bash the French if i didn't think the United States was circling the same drain.