France Bans Filming of Violent Acts
Just this week, French officials passed a law that makes it illegal for anyone other than professional journalists to film real-world violence and distribute the images on the Internet. The supposed purpose of the law is to put a stop to a new fad in France called “happy slapping.” While the name implies something less than violent, the reality is that “happy slapping” is the act a bunch of thugs and gang members going around and assaulting random, innocent people and filming it for distribution on the web.
While it is admirably that they wish to put a stop to such heinous acts of violence, the manner in which they are trying to accomplish this is severely hampering free speech. Sure, it bans the filming and distribution of “happy slapping”, but it goes much further and would make it illegal for a non-journalist to film, for instance, the recent riots in France or even videos of police brutality.
Imagine you witness a horrible police brutality on the streets of France, and you just happen to have a camcorder with you. Under old law, you could have filmed it and the victim would have some visual proof that would surely help their case. But now, under the new law, France discourages and even punishes citizen journalists for taping such acts of violence. Sure, an eyewitness testimony is helpful in such cases, but nothing beats visual proof.
This new law is troubling. I doubt it will stop the violence from occuring; the gangs will still go about beating random people, and they’ll probably even still video tape it. But what they might not do is share it with people through sites like YouTube. However, just because we can’t see the crimes happening, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It just means that now police will have a harder time tracking down the videos and finding out who is involved in the crimes. While the law makes it harder for cops to track down the criminals, it does make it easier for them to commit acts such as police brutality and penalize those who try to expose them.