Amateur Videos Banned
Two e-mails from readers have informed me of this frightening, though hardly surprising, piece of news:
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 euros (US$98,537), potentially a harsher sentence than that for committing the violent act.
Read the whole Yahoo article. Read especially the last paragraph about the French State's plans to monitor and/or suppress bloggers. Terrifying. And Sarkozy who wants to save humanity is behind this.
Labels: Intellectual Terrorism
posted by tiberge @ 7:21 PM
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3 Comments:
@ Tiberge
It is terrifying, all the more so as they (our politicians) are terrified : they are realizing that more and more people "neglect" TV and find the news on the web ; of course they are responsible for this state of affairs, and with them most of the showbiz "staff".
The example I provide here will be proof of it : Monsieur Le Lay, the big boss of TF1, a private channel belonging to businessmen but heir to LA UNE, a state channel, said in an interview about LES DIRIGEANTS FACE AU CHANGEMENT, a book he wrote (?) in 2004 : "Soyons réalistes : à la base, le métier de TF1, c'est d'aider Coca-Cola, par exemple,à vendre son produit(....)Or pour qu'un message publicitaire soit perçu, il faut que le cerveau du téléspectateur soit disponible. Nos émissions ont pour misssion de le rendre disponible : c'est à dire de le divertir, de le détendre pour le préparer entre deux messages. Ce que nous vendons à Coca-Cola, c(es t du temps de cerveau humain disponible(....) Rien n'est plus difficile que d(obtenir cette disponibilité. C'est là que se trouve le changement permanent. Il faut chercher en permanence les programmes qui marchent,suivre les modes, surfer sur les tendances...."
As they no longer capture the audience, they are afraid, they get angry, and they lead the country to a dictatorship. Officially, freedom of speech is written "in marble" ; leaders who don't respect the law they have accepted or passed are nothing more than dictators, are they ? CQFD, as we say in French (!)....
@ zazie
We're in the Dark Ages - no question.
What makes them think that people who have deserted TV for the superior Internet will go back to TV if the web becomes "monitored"?
If they censor the web and there is no real news, how would that help businesses wanting to sell their sodas and toothpaste?
It sounds like they think they can woo everybody back to TV, entertain them with schlock, put them to sleep and sell their products.
The idea is to suffocate the sources of dissent. Then after time, there won't be anyone left who knows the difference between knowledge and ignorance. As long as the free web exists there's a chance the truth will get out.
But more than all that, your perceptive statement that they "get angry, and lead the country to a dictatorship" is the essential issue here. They will NOT BE DISOBEYED! I think they are much angrier at being disobeyed than they are at losing customers or viewers. It's the idea that anyone would DARE dissent that turns them into dictators.
In America the Left (Democrats) have spoken of censuring the Internet - on grounds it's harmful to children! So far we've escaped censorship, but the day is not far off...
I wonder if the new law will cause terrorists to not internet-broadcast beheadings of infidels?
It's amazing how the government seems to aim laws at the law-abiding.
How are the beaches at Normandy these days?
Good blog -- I'm linking you. :)
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