Posted on 03/08/2007 6:39:44 AM PST by Mobile Vulgus
In a warning to the sanctity of free speech in a democratic nation, France is about to show us what happens when the state is allowed to legally determine who is allowed to be a "journalist", or who is a "legitimate" source of news: You get the criminalization of speech.
France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence
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.This would, in fact, place the power to silence whistleblowers from being able to expose abuse by government officials into the hands of those very officials in the case of police abuse, for instance.
But, the French government isn't only trying to stop the internet broadcasting of violence – a goal that almost sounds reasonable if not thought out too thuroughly.
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.Ah, here we go. A "certification system" is merely another word for government censorship and total control of the media.
We in the USA better watch this kind of dangerous curb to free speech. If this approach becomes popular in Europe, this kind of oppression will surely knock on the doors of Congress in short order.
Call this an early warning.
Journalists behaving badly? Only when an act of violence is committed by a professional journalist can it be filmed or broadcast? (chalk it up to the nuance of translation)
In a warning to the sanctity of free speech in a democratic nation, France is about to show us what happens when the state is allowed to legally determine who is allowed to be a "journalist", or who is a "legitimate" source of news: You get the criminalization of speech.
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The beauty of socialism and government oppression. This is why you do not want a Marxist in our White House, or in control of Congress.
Please read and offer your comments
"Professional Journalist", like licensed by the government or something like that. Wow! Freedom and France don't mix.
bump
I have it bookmarked and will read it later. The MSM loves Obama Hussein.
If the "professional' journalists never arrive, then the violence doesn't exist. So now we know, in France, when a tree falls in the forrest, it doesn't make a sound.
They learned well from the old Germany.
"certification system"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1797174/posts
And here: "Proof of Credentials"
This is all backdooring to, IMO:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1591390/posts
NJ Bill Would Prohibit Anonymous Posts on Forums...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1591081/posts
The problem of thin-skinned politicos (NJ bill to ban anonymous posting)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1589588/posts
NJ LEGISLATURE - ID of interactive computer services & Internet service
Anyone who takes the freedom of the Internet for granted is in for a very rude shock if the RATS gain full power. Not only will they eliminate conservative talk radio with a new "fairness" doctrine, they will go after the Internet with a vengence, citing hate crime laws, libel, etc. Of course, they will ignore MoveOn, Huffington, etc., but you can bet your bottom dollar that Free Republic will be in the center of their crosshairs.
It is fun speculating what the result would be if the same thing is proposed in the US.
I'm dying to know how the "arguments" pro and con might go.
Seems to me the legitimacy of the concept might already be set through existing unchallenged "hate speech" legislation.
Isn't this a rather difficult set of restrictions to enforce?
Liberty,Equality,Fraternity.
The French Revolutionary outcry,is just so nuch Bullcrap these days.
Bring back the guillotine. Off with their heads. France: Tha language is dead and the country is on the way out.
They're already thinking about it here in the US. It's called "The Fairness Doctrine". Or, more accurately put: the "Make Opposition to Liberal Governance Illegal Act". All Hate Crimes legislation falls into this category as well.
OK memory slips but wasn't there some kind of "fairness" legislation being put up by some politicians here recently that would force any radio station giving a conservative point of view to HAVE to give the liberal counter-balance side of an issue whether they wanted to or not ???
Wow you must be a mind reader !!!
Expect another (probably in a coming long series) of UN and International efforts to gain control over the internet also.
Yes, I'm sure that besides their Fairness Doctrine to get rid of conservative talk radio, the Democrats are working on something to shut up sites like FR and conservative bloggers.
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