Calling politicians "liars" illegal in FranceCalling politicians "liars" illegal in France
A woman accused of "public slander against a government member" has been summoned to the police station.
The reason: this 49 year old woman from Saint-Paul-lès-Dax (Southern France) posted a three word comment on the video hosting website Dailymotion.
What were those words?
"Boo, the liar".
"The liar" referred to Nadine Morano, the French Secretary of State for Family. The video was an extract of a TV interview where she denied that she infiltrated a Ségolène Royal meeting (during the 2007 presidential campaign - NdT)
Last February, Nadine Morano filed a complaint. According to the newspaper Le Point, the public prosecution service opened a preliminary investigation for "public slander", on the 13th of February.
Following this investigation, Dailymotion and YouTube received a judicial summons from the Repression of Delinquency against Individuals Brigade. (RDIB)
According to the newspaper Sud Ouest, the RDIB's aim was to "urgently obtain the date, hour and IP addresses used, as well as any identifying element regarding the publication of the comment".
Comment: This summons is another evidence of France's "easy slide into fascism". The Brigade's decision to get the IP addresses of Internet users following an innocuous comment on a video hosting website is in accordance with the "three strike law" on the Internet, which targets illegal downloading and allows authorities to spy on the Internet users and collect their IP addresses. See here and here.
On May the 12th, this 49 year old woman and mother of three will find herself at Dax's police station, to be audienced by a judicial police officer from the RDIB - a unit attached to the Paris-based judicial police regional head office. All because she dared to write this outrageous sentence:
"Booh, the liar".
Comment: A few months ago, the Swiss public channel TSR broadcasted a program where several guests talked about the French humorist Dieudonné - who, by the way, is also the leader of the Anti-Zionist party, and who will take part in Sunday's European election. One of the guests commented that Dieudonné was not very smart. Another guest, the TV producer and radio personality Pascal Bernheim, then replied : "Yeah... he's a . .. .. .. .. .. .".
Dieudonné filed a complaint against Pascal Bernheim for racial slander. The Swiss justice dismissed the complaint on the 20th May.
As a consequence of this decision, Dieudonné published a humorous video sketch, where he congratulated the Swiss justice for defending the freedom of speech and for creating a case law, and which allowed him to answer Pascal Bernheim in his own (humorous) way: (quoting) "the powerful zionist yid lobby is a bunch of thefts and liars".
His intention was obviously to prove that the judicial system was two-tier. He was proven right: a few days after the publication of the video on the Internet, an investigation was opened against him for antisemitic slander.
So, it seems that in Switzerland and in France, you can safely insult Black people, but not Jews (especially if you're an anti-zionist Black humorist). Nor can you call a politician a "liar".
Calling politicians "liars" illegal in France
