Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Guilty of anti-Israel defamation - in France!
American Thinker ^ | 6 2 05 | Thomas Lifson

Posted on 06/02/2005 3:11:36 PM PDT by dervish

A French Court finds a pillar of the French media. Le Monde, guilty of defamation against Israel and the Jewish people. The Wall Street Journal reports: A French court last week found three writers for Le Monde, as well as the newspaper's publisher, guilty of "racist defamation" against Israel and the Jewish people. In a groundbreaking decision, the Versailles court of appeal ruled that a comment piece published in Le Monde in 2002, "Israel-Palestine: The Cancer," had whipped up anti-Semitic opinion.

The writers of the article, Edgar Morin (a well-known sociologist), Danièle Sallenave (a senior lecturer at Nanterre University) and Sami Nair (a member of the European parliament), as well as Le Monde's publisher, Jean-Marie Colombani, were ordered to pay symbolic damages of one euro to a human-rights group and to the Franco-Israeli association. Le Monde was also ordered to publish a condemnation of the article, which it has yet to do.

Of course, these defamation laws in Europe are usually employed to punish those critical of politically correct groups, especially Muslims and Arabs. Orianna Fallaci is currently facing prosecution for her critical writings in that vein. So these laws are not a good thing for freedom of speech.

However, they do exist. So they might as well be applied across the board, at least until they can be repealed. Of course, slander of israel and Jews is commonplace in Europe, so the Le Monde case is merely a grain of sand at a very big beach. And the decision does not exactly sport any teeth. But it is a start.

Hat tip: Ed Lasky


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: defamation; europe; fallachi; france; israel; jews; lemonde; palestine; racism
Here is the WSJ article, an excellent piece by Tom Gross reviewing the anti-Israel European press in the last few years:

WSJ

1 posted on 06/02/2005 3:11:38 PM PDT by dervish
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SJackson; Tolik; quidnunc; IAF ThunderPilot; Do not dub me shapka broham; SunkenCiv; Salem

ping!


2 posted on 06/02/2005 3:17:03 PM PDT by dervish
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dervish

One lousy euro in damages!?! I can see France is really taking anti-Semitism seriously. </sarcasm>


3 posted on 06/02/2005 3:20:12 PM PDT by vikingd00d (What does it profit a nation to win the world's approval if it should lose its soul?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alouette; SJackson; LUV W; snugs; Cornpone; jb6

"A French Court finds a pillar of the French media. Le Monde, guilty of defamation against Israel and the Jewish people. The Wall Street Journal reports: A French court last week found three writers for Le Monde, as well as the newspaper's publisher, guilty of "racist defamation" against Israel and the Jewish people. In a groundbreaking decision, the Versailles court of appeal ruled that a comment piece published in Le Monde in 2002, "Israel-Palestine: The Cancer," had whipped up anti-Semitic opinion."


4 posted on 06/02/2005 3:21:02 PM PDT by anonymoussierra (In te credo, in te credo Deo!!!!!!Confiteor Deo omnipotenti!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dervish
A French Court finds a pillar of the French media. Le Monde, guilty of defamation against Israel and the Jewish people.

Be still, my beating heart! Hell may be frozen over...

5 posted on 06/02/2005 3:27:21 PM PDT by xJones
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vikingd00d

But this is the standard punishment in France for these "racial hatred" cases. Incitation of racial hatred, denial of the holocaust, etc. These are criminal offenses, on the one hand.

On the other hand, France is a nation with a long tradition of free speech and free political expression.

How, then, does one juxtapose the right to speak with laws that protect against crying "fire" in a crowded theatre?

By having a trial and a conviction, thereby gaining the public consciousness and attention, but then imposing a symbolic penalty of one Euro.


6 posted on 06/02/2005 3:29:12 PM PDT by Vicomte13 (Et alors?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Vicomte13

glad you saw this I meant to ping you.

I agree. The damages are normally symbolic. The real harm is to reputation if it is a newspaper. I'd like to see that apology.


7 posted on 06/02/2005 3:34:42 PM PDT by dervish
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: dervish

The apology will be couched in terms that are not.
There is no remorse at Le Monde at all, and there will be no pretense that there is. What, after all, can the court do if it does not think Le Monde's apology sufficiently contrite?
Nothing.


8 posted on 06/02/2005 3:43:55 PM PDT by Vicomte13 (Et alors?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: vikingd00d

Yes, that one Euro IS very symbolic, of the French willingness to accommodate Jew-haters of every stripe.


9 posted on 06/02/2005 4:03:38 PM PDT by thoughtomator (The U.S. Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: dennisw; Cachelot; Yehuda; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; ...
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
10 posted on 06/02/2005 4:57:08 PM PDT by SJackson (Israel should know if you push people too hard they will explode in your faces, Abed. palestinian)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator

I think there is significance here. The 'new anti-Semitism' is couched in political terms, as anti-Israel. This judgement says they are the same thing. This is a point that Europe has not wanted to concede.


11 posted on 06/02/2005 7:32:10 PM PDT by dervish
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: dervish; Berosus; blam; Do not dub me shapka broham; Ernest_at_the_Beach; FairOpinion; ...

Thanks Derv' for the ping.


12 posted on 06/03/2005 12:16:04 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Tuesday, May 10, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dervish; Salem; SJackson; Do not dub me shapka broham; SunkenCiv
"Guilty of anti-Israel defamation - in France!"


13 posted on 06/03/2005 4:24:02 AM PDT by Convert from ECUSA (tired of all the shucking and jiving)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: vikingd00d; anonymoussierra; Convert from ECUSA; SunkenCiv
Perhaps they should change the name of their newspaper from "The World" to Die Stuermer.
14 posted on 06/03/2005 9:13:22 PM PDT by Do not dub me shapka broham ("What in the world happened to Gerard's tag-line?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Do not dub me shapka broham

:')


15 posted on 06/04/2005 6:09:31 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Tuesday, May 10, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Vicomte13; xJones; SunkenCiv; dervish; backhoe
It really is disturbing to see the direction France-and by extension, the entirety of Western Europe-is taking with regard to the offhand dismissal of latent-and often, overt-manifestations of anti-Semitism within its Muslim-Arab subculture.

The fact that Tariq Ramadan-the lineal descendent of the man who founded the Muslim Brotherhood-is now a respected, legitimate scholar should set off alarm bells in the mind of anyone with half a conscience.

Do we really need to wait for another Kristallnacht?

16 posted on 06/04/2005 7:12:20 PM PDT by Do not dub me shapka broham ("What in the world happened to Gerard's tag-line?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Do not dub me shapka broham

France and Europe in general are not alone in allowing the airing of snuff films by the terrorist mass-murderers.


17 posted on 06/04/2005 7:34:16 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Tuesday, May 10, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson