dlink
7 maart 2007, 11:50
http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/03/06/franceban/index.php?lsrc=mwrss
Selon cet article, le Conseil constitutionnel a approuvé une loi qui
criminalise le fait que des personnes qui ne sont pas des journalistes
professionnels filment ou diffusent des actes de violence. Ceci
s'appliquerait également aux hébergeurs de site Web.
La France : une source inépuisable de nouvelles lois, toujours plus
liberticides.
Goebbels serait fier.
(en anglais)
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.
Selon cet article, le Conseil constitutionnel a approuvé une loi qui
criminalise le fait que des personnes qui ne sont pas des journalistes
professionnels filment ou diffusent des actes de violence. Ceci
s'appliquerait également aux hébergeurs de site Web.
La France : une source inépuisable de nouvelles lois, toujours plus
liberticides.
Goebbels serait fier.
(en anglais)
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.