French Happyslapping Law Ropes In Citizen Journalism

France has approved a law that makes it illegal to film or broadcast acts of violence unless you’re a professional journalist, reports IDGNS via MacWorld. This is ostensibly to combat the practice of happyslapping, where someone is attacked and the action is filmed — normally on a cameraphone — to be distributed later. However, there is concern that “the law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images”, and the usual comparison is that of when Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King were filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday…Holliday would be up for charges under the law.
“The broad drafting of the law so as to criminalize the activities of citizen journalists unrelated to the perpetrators of violent acts is no accident, but rather a deliberate decision by the authorities, said Cohet, spokesperson for French online civil liberties group Odebi. He is concerned that the law, and others still being debated, will lead to the creation of a parallel judicial system controlling the publication of information on the Internet…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.”

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