France Criminalizes Citizen Journalists

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/22436.php

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.


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