France Criminalizes Citizen Journalists
France's Constitutional Council has passed a new law which would criminalize so called "citizen journalists" who record acts of violence. The rising numbers of cellphones which come with built in video-recorders has lead to a surge in bystanders recording crimes and events of note - then passing those recordings to the media. Under this new law, only accredited journalists would be permitted to make recordings in public places.
The French online civil liberties group, Odebi criticized the new law, which was approved on the 16th anniversary of the infamous Rodney King beating, which was recorded by a bystander on their camcorder. Under the new law, George Holliday who made the recording would himself have been a criminal - and could have faced prison.
The law, which was proposed by Minister of the Interior, and French Presidential hopeful, Nicolas Sarkozy has been designed to criminalize a range of public order offenses, such as the recent endemic of "happy slapping" where school children record attacks on their fellows and then distribute that video clip via mobile phones.
However, so wide is the scope of the law, that any recording of public violence by anyone other than an accredited journalist would now itself be a criminal activity.
While the government is proposing that bloggers and mobile phone networks could request "certification" with some restrictions - it seems that an average person who just happens to come across an act of violence in the streets and whips out their cellphone to record it, would now themselves be a criminal. "
Posted to the site on 7th March 2007
