French Police Censor Blogs

Adam Tinworth
Adam Tinworth

Interesting fall-out from the rioting in France; the police there are censoring blogs:

French prosecutors shut down several blogs this week and arrested bloggers suspected of inciting violence, as officials moved to squelch riots that have rocked France for more than 10 days.

A prosecuting attorney from Le Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris, who spoke under condition of anonymity, told Wired News that three bloggers and forum visitors allegedly posted messages that violated French criminal statutes governing violent speech. Two of the bloggers, who were arrested earlier this week, could be arraigned under violent speech statutes, the prosecutor said. The blogs in question, he said, were hosted on a French site called Skyblog, which is owned by Skyrock.

More on Wired.

Now, I’m not in favour of hate blogs by any means, but I always get twitchy when the state starts interfering in people’s communication. I tend to believe that the police should intervene at the point when speech becomes action.

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogs, censorship, france, police

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Adam is a lecturer, trainer and writer. He's been a blogger for over 20 years, and a journalist for more than 30. He lectures on audience strategy and engagement at City, University of London.

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