March 6th, 2007
The French Disconnection (a.k.a. Vous n'êtes pas un YouTube journaliste)
Lawmaking in France continues to be an enigma. When the country first looked like it was on the verge of forcing Apple to open up its FairPlay digital rights management scheme, lawmakers eventually settled for a toothless policy that accomplished nothing in the end. Now comes this from Macworld:
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.
Are they afraid that a non-professional journalist (whatever that is) might report on some violence of context (whatever that is)?
