[WikiEN-l] Re: Trading with the Enemy

[Anthere]

I spent a good while looking for a reference that would support the 
claim the government threatened the sun of the 45000 euros fine.

In french, the number of references I found is laughable. In short, the 
topic is not mentionned but by a couple of blog and forum. French just 
do not know of that law, which is a good measure of how refrained in 
their freedom of speech they feel.
Also, some discussions mentionning the law and the fine, indicated that 
some people thought The Sun attack was a two level construction
First : insulting the president very badly
Second : spreading the word this is illegal to do so, hence that no 
freedom of speech is allowed in France.

I may be wrong, but I suspect that if the Elysées porte parole had only 
even "mentionned" the law in a private dinner at her sister house, that 
would have been reported everywhere immediately, with quotation, the 
food that was in her plate, and the dress she was wearing that evening. 
I found no such thing. I tend to believe that if any official had said 
such a thing on behalf of the government, that would have made enough 
noise, so that such an information would be very easily found even now. 
I don't think France bashers would have missed such a delicacy :-)

Actually, what I found is many english reports saying "the Sun could be 
fined 45000 under a french law".

The most frequent report is this one "The tabloid's controversial stance 
breaks a French law that makes it a criminal offence to insult the 
president. Breaking the law carries a fine up 45,000 euros."

Most reports seemed to be copies of this one (from Jimbo reference).

You could note that there is absolutely no indication of the name of any 
  french official who would have reminded Murdoch of that law. Nor of 
any date or event when that happened.

So, again, I may be wrong...and will recognise I am if anyone can find a 
reference of a french government porte parole either
* threatening to sue the Sun or
* actually announcing the french governemnt is suing the Sun.

But I think the current accusations carried by RickK are not very far 
from libel. As they do not stand on any reality. It is certainly true 
that there is a theoretical possibility that french people could be 
restrained in their liberty of speech since that law exists, but in 
practice, there is no fact proving that our governemnt is actively 
limiting or even thinking of limiting our freedom.

This said, I hope I use the right words.

-------

As for what angered me RickK, I can't believe you are so insensitive as 
not to see that free and undeserved nation bashing is bound to anger 
their inhabitants. I will consider that you were just not realising :-)

--------

Jimmy Wales a écrit:
> Delirium wrote:
> 
>> More recently the Sun was threatened with a lawsuit for insulting
>>Chirac, though this never materialized.
> 
> 
> In the interests of corrected a misperception which I inadvertantly
> fell into the other day, is it actually true that the Sun was
> "threatened with" such a lawsuit?  Or is it merely that observers
> (at the Guardian, for example) noted that such was a theoretical
> possibility?
> 
> http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,900093,00.html
> 
> --Jimbo