France Bans Citizen Journalists from Reporting Violence

Do we have any French citizens on this site that can comment on this tragedy?

There has to be at least a couple.

Originally posted by Realtruth
Do we have any French citizens on this site that can comment on this tragedy?

There has to be at least a couple.

If they are any here they keep very quite. We tried to find some last year during the French Riots in Paris and I think one person answered one post and then vanished never to be seen again.

I heard the French Police came and took him/her away but that is just a rumor I heard J/K

Seriously though, I do not think we have many, but that does not mean they are not silent , most French people tend to be the silent type when it comes to discussing their culture.

Originally posted by Realtruth
Do we have any French citizens on this site that can comment on this tragedy?

There has to be at least a couple.

I think I remember at least two, but there must be more.

Anyway, this article from Reporters Withouth Borders explains the situation better.

Originally posted by jsobecky
This really is serious. Read this passage from the main link:

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.

France, you better wake up real quick!

I don't think the French will take this lying down! This is beyond suppression of free speech.

Originally posted by ArMaP


Anyway, this article from Reporters Withouth Borders explains the situation better.

Thanks that does put a new light on things it also makes one wonder. After I read it one thing came to mind was the use of the word violence the way they used it. Does this new law also set its sight on those who may riot and film for distribution so they could gather more followers?

Quote from the RSF Report:

The law specifies that the ban "is not applicable when the recording or dissemination is the result of the normal exercise of a profession whose purpose is to inform the public

....isn't Blogging etc.. "informing the public"? Regardless of whether it is paid or not, it is informative.

Originally posted by Realtruth
Do we have any French citizens on this site that can comment on this tragedy?

Well if you ask me it's not a bad thing to ban these kind of videos without any serious journalistic work done
I think it's a response to the recent events where some youngsters were filming "happy slappings" or even worse bitting their comrades...stuff like that.
I don't think it's an "anti freedom of speech" law it's all about controlling the BIG medias behaviour which tend to terrorize people with 30sec of criminal activities filmed by all kind of weirdos.

Anyway this law will not be applied anytime soon aha just like 60% of our laws and the internet is literally out of control...what can they do? close the net?

We're not in China

But i could be wrong

[edit on 8-3-2007 by themaster1]

Originally posted by mirageofdeceit

The law specifies that the ban "is not applicable when the recording or dissemination is the result of the normal exercise of a profession whose purpose is to inform the public

....isn't Blogging etc.. "informing the public"? Regardless of whether it is paid or not, it is informative.

You have to read what is said in its context. It states you have to be a professional i.e., someone trained in journalism and reporting the news.

An interesting thing about this story .... everyone here at ATS who is posting about this is in AGREEMENT. Far left, far right, middle of the road .... all political flavors and different places across the globe ... we all agree ... THIS IS FRIGHTENING and very very bad!

It appears the French government is afraid that the French and the world finds out how much violence they have in their cities, or how the government has decided not to punishing those who comit crimes. Could this clamp down on free speech have anything to do with the following?

Muslims are waging civil war against us, claims police union
By David Rennie, Europe Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:48am BST 07/10/2006

Radical Muslims in France's housing estates are waging an undeclared "intifada" against the police, with violent clashes injuring an average of 14 officers each day.

As the interior ministry said that nearly 2,500 officers had been wounded this year, a police union declared that its members were "in a state of civil war" with Muslims in the most depressed "banlieue" estates which are heavily populated by unemployed youths of north African origin.

www.telegraph.co.uk.../news/2006/10/05/wmuslims05.xml


[edit on 8-3-2007 by Muaddib]

Originally posted by FlyersFan
An interesting thing about this story .... everyone here at ATS who is posting about this is in AGREEMENT. Far left, far right, middle of the road .... all political flavors and different places across the globe ... we all agree ... THIS IS FRIGHTENING and very very bad!

I had not thought of it that way. Great point. This is indeed scary stuff. One would hope the citizens of France are awake enough to the consequences to fight to stop this from happening. This is very much like the recent disintegration of any hope for a true Democracy in Russia. I too would like to hear from some French citizens as to their thoughts on this?

Originally posted by FlyersFan
THIS IS FRIGHTENING and very very bad!

It sure is and what scares me even more is that everyone from ATS all agrees, now that in itself is scary.

Originally posted by Muaddib
Could this clamp down on free speech have anything to do with the following?

Yes I think it does and you are right on target as usual, I was thinking the very same earlier.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Muaddib

Muslims are waging civil war against us, claims police union
By David Rennie, Europe Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:48am BST 07/10/2006

Radical Muslims in France's housing estates are waging an undeclared "intifada" against the police, with violent clashes injuring an average of 14 officers each day.
ex]
www.telegraph.co.uk.../news/2006/10/05/wmuslims05.xml

[edit on 8-3-2007 by Muaddib]

This is pretty much what I'm being told by my Jewish business partner and why he lives in fear for his family and child. I've noticed he never travels there any more and he is having visits from his child and others from France far more often. When I last asked him about how it was there he turned pale. This sounds as if a declared civil war could be not too far in the future.

Isn't it ironic how a country that bent over backward to accommodate peoples cultures is paying such a dear price?

[edit on 3/8/2007 by Blaine91555]

Originally posted by Blaine91555

This is pretty much what I'm being told by my Jewish business partner and why he lives in fear for his family and child. I've noticed he never travels there any more and he is having visits from his child and others from France far more often. When I last asked him about how it was there he turned pale. This sounds as if a declared civil war could be not too far in the future.

Isn't it ironic how a country that bent over backward to accommodate peoples cultures is paying such a dear price?

This has been happening in France for a while now, it is nothing new. Women cannot go out in parts of France withou a jihab, and if they do they risk being gang raped.

Even Muslim women who have become "independent" have been suffering gang rapes over there.

"I was gang raped by three people I knew, and I couldn't say anything, because in my culture, your family is dishonored if you lose your virginity."
Samira Bellil

www.cbsnews.com...

There have been riots in France since the 80s by Muslim fundamentalists who think that France has to accept their own sharia laws and the system has to let them do anything and everything they want.

There is a war waging in France, yet apparently the French government wants to keep it as quiet as possible.


[edit on 8-3-2007 by Muaddib]

I can see the benefit of banning the videos, not to surpress the freedom of speech and what not; but to stop retarded people from doing practical jokes and injuring themselves. Will it stop people from finding another method to broadcast their videos? No.

Right now, the world is infatuated with youtube, personal spaces like myspace or facebook. I don't see the French government changing the lives of their citizens by passing this law, if anything, it will create more of a desire to do it.

You fail to mention the real reason behind the ban..

Slap Happy recordings..

They are shot usually by youths you instigate and provoke violence for the joy of filming it... it isn't like some kind of rodney King beating tape where they caught the police.. its like the "bum fighting" in America where kids pay bums to beat each other bloody.

Originally posted by Realtruth
Do we have any French citizens on this site that can comment on this tragedy?

There has to be at least a couple.

Knowing the whole truth behind the ban first would be a much wiser move then assuming it is a bad thing.

If I were to have a camcorder, and filmed a riot that was going on in the streets, and then posted it on the internet, I could be arrested under this law.

It goes so far as to prohibit home video of a violent act.

I never said it was not a bad law within the extent it goes..

All I pointed out was why it was proposed in the first place, because of idiot out of control youth.

Originally posted by Muaddib

This has been happening in France for a while now, it is nothing new. Women cannot go out in parts of France withou a jihab, and if they do they risk being gang raped.
..

There is a war waging in France, yet apparently the French government wants to keep it as quiet as possible.

The French government has choosen to side with the agressors, looks like they'd rather impose censorship and silence the opposition than stop coddling a few radicals who hide behind 'cultural diversity'.

this state is treasonous and should war ensue they will probably be the first victims, because radical usurpers are notoriously ungrateful while the French have no reason to tolerate them any longer. suicide on a national level.

[edit on 9-3-2007 by Long Lance]