The Official Story
France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence
"The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists . . . The council chose an unfortunate anniversary to publish its decision approving the law, which came exactly 16 years after Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King were filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday on the night of March 3, 1991."
Wow. I mean, not to bash on France in particular, but this is frightening -- that a Western and allegedly free and democratic nation would officially sanction an information crackdown on its own people.
What is the point of such a law? Why would a governmental body criminalize the recording and dissemination of information by its own populace? Does this not strike you as disturbing that a Western governmental body would deem that certain types of information can only be broadcast by approved news sources?
And what does this mean for those approved news sources -- are they in constant threat of being added to the "non-approved" list if they broadcast messages that the government does not sanction?