Posted on 07/28/2013 6:43:19 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Being rude to the French president is no longer an offense after parliament agreed on Thursday to amend legislation dating back to 1881 in favor of freedom of speech.
Whereas before any rude remark risked an automatic fine for offending the head of state, the president is now reduced to the same category as ministers and parliamentarians and would need to have a judge prove there had been slander or defamation.
The offense, which was introduced in 1881 under press freedom regulations (ironically), was punishable until the year 2000 by a jail sentence of between three months and one year.
The change came after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in March that France had violated a demonstrators right to freedom of expression when it fined him for holding a banner up to Nicolas Sarkozy reading: Get lost, jerk.
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
Legislators. Pretty much the same everywhere and everywhen.
/johnny
So the Frogs used to have a law against insulting their King Toad? I had no idea.
I called Pompidou a criminal when I was 9. And Jacques Chiraq a weasel a few decades later.
Hey Hollande, Your Mother was a hamster and your father smells of elderberries ...
Just another white guy....
Oh dear. I will call my pastor and see if she will marry your maw and paw finally ASAP. You being in charge of a White Flag country and all, I think it’s important.... or not...
I know I would have been charged quite a few times over the years ! Depends if the law applied while being in a different country or not ! LOL !
Le président de la France est un nelly.
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