This weekend I wrote a column for the Washington Post on the crackdown of free speech in France. The column suggested that, if the French really wanted to honor the dead at Charlie Hebdo, they would rescind the laws used to hound them and threaten them with criminal prosecution for years. (Indeed, at least one surviving journalist expressed contempt for those who now support free speech but remained silent in the face of past efforts to shut down the magazine). Now, however, news reports indicate that the French government is doubling down on criminalizing speech in the name of free speech after the massacre. France has reportedly made dozens of arrests of people who glorify terrorism and engage in hateful or antiSemitic speech.
Prosecutors have gone out of their way to make it known that they are prosecuting people for speech — a remarkably ironic twist since the victims were prosecuted for the very same thing and died defending free speech against such private or governmental speech codes. Some 54 people have been arrested since the Paris terror attacks. The French justice department has encouraged more arrests for speech violations.
Notably, one of those detained was mentioned in my column, the comedian Dieudonne, who has been prosecuted for anti-Semitic jokes. For earlier posts and columns on Dieudonne, click here and here and here. We have previously discussed the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in France (here and here and here and here and here and here) and England ( here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Much of this trend is tied to the expansion of hate speech and non-discrimination laws. We have seen comedians targets with such court orders under this expanding and worrisome trend. (here and here).
The crackdown in France shows that this is really not about free speech despite the rally in Paris. The West seems to be falling out of faith with free speech, which is now something to be prosecuted rather than protected. Of course, the prosecutions will do little to change minds and will only make the West appear hypocritical and arbitrary. Notably, the arrests this week include four minors. The government is also ramping greater surveillance and searches. So, to recap, the French government just rallied millions for liberty this weekend and then used the attacks to further deny free speech and privacy rights.
In the case of Dieudonne, he ran afoul of the laws by posing a Facebook statement that he felt like “Charlie Coulibaly” — merging the names of Charlie Hebdo and Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who seized a kosher market and killed four hostages. It was later taken down. He later wrote to the Interior Minister that “Whenever I speak, you do not try to understand what I’m trying to say, you do not want to listen to me. You are looking for a pretext to forbid me. You consider me like Amedy Coulibaly when I am not any different from Charlie.”
ChipS, We had a member of the family that was a racist. My old man would not allow him to spew in front of us kids. It got to the point where he was simply not invited into our house.
Back in grade school there was this kid who was just pitiful at arithmetic. Whenever the teacher corrected him he’d pound his desk and yell, “Free speech!”
ChipS, “You can pick your nose, you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.”
Inga-Your obsession with Nick is downright frightening. Enough. No one cares about your personal vendetta.
It’s too bad that some folks didn’t inherit their brave relatives decency.
When my uncle used to visit the fam he’d usually get liquored up and start ranting about how the Jews run the world. Dad would ask him nicely to chill, but that only made him yell “It’s a free country!” with spittle flying all over the dinner table.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Zack, more than he would ever admit.
Ah, it didn’t take much to get the little righty terrorits in a tizzy. This is precisely what I mean about the commitment to free speech being nothing but hot air among the usual suspects. Free speech is indeed an elusive thing.
ChipS, We need to get the UN outta NYC. I think Paris would be a perfect location for it.
Could be. We had one disturbed commenter use 19 aliases in just one day. But, I’ve seen that name previously.
Nick, I suspect it’s a former commenter under a new name.
Pogo, That guy is a drive by malcontent bomb thrower, I would also not take his bait either.
Yeah, stop doing that Spinelli. No one cares about Spinelli blood.
Someone is jumping up and down saying “LOOK @ ME, LOOK @ ME.” Keep rejecting the sophomoric bait, folks.
“Now, today here, on this blog censorship is prominent. I saw that a guest blogger quit because of that issue.”
Prof. Turley censored someone and they quit as a result?
That simply never happened.
Trooper, Actually having worked rape cases before DNA, IIRC about 30% of men secrete blood in their semen. If a rapist had a unique blood type, and was did secrete blood in their semen, that would be circumstantial evidence.
Weren’t you a Times Square theatre regular back in the 70’s along w/ Pee Wee Herman.
olicou, Where do you live? You say not France, but where? That would help us in our discussion.
Max, try criticizing Fundamental Christianity around here, then we quickly see how the commitment to free speech is nothing but hot air.
Inga – is fundamental your word of the week? You have used it in almost every comment.
Inga wrote: “Max, try criticizing Fundamental Christianity around here, then we quickly see how the commitment to free speech is nothing but hot air.”
You seem to think that if someone defends an ideology or criticizes another one that they do not believe in free speech. That is not true.
If someone defends their ideology, that is not an affront to free speech. Free speech does not imply all comments are equal. Some concepts are better than other concepts just as some religions are better than other religions and some governments are better than other governments. The idea of free speech is that government will not use its power of force (imprisonment and fines) against speech found by others to be objectionable.
So criticize Christianity all you like. Just because someone passionately says you are wrong and argues against your ideology does not mean that they are against free speech. On the other hand, if they called upon government to put you in jail for saying it, then they would be against free speech.
Free speech is not elusive at all. People just have to understand it and be committed to it.
Had 6 uncles and one father fight in WW2. Had an uncle left for dead @ the Battle of the Bulge. He spent 6 months in a UK hospital, fighting for his life. Carried German shrapnel in his body until he died. Had an uncle fight island to island in the Pacific against the savage Japanese. Spinelli blood was spilled in both theatres.
On human rights, USA have an averaged record among developed countries. USA is 18th, France is 20th, but Sweden, Norway and Australia makes up the top third.
Link, pls, so we can see what grab bag of social-welfare goodies constitutes “human rights” on this scorecard.
I’m guessing that the list comes from the UN, which means rights and redistribution in roughly equal measure.
Chip S. – speaking of social welfare, 43 million Americans are currently on welfare.