France Censors Site That Hosts Videos & Photos Of Police Misconduct

Free Speech

from the privacy-violations? dept

Wed, Oct 19th 2011 12:45pm — Mike Masnick

While US courts have started to make it clear that recording police on duty is perfectly legal, it appears that France is going in the opposite direction. In a recent ruling, a French court has ordered ISPs to block access to a website, which hosts videos and photos taken by citizens demonstrating police misconduct. Apparently, the court claims that such videos and photos, in conjunction with the names and affiliations of the officers seen, is a violation of privacy rights. As is explained in a comment on Volokh's site:

the dissemination of photographs and videos in addition to the names and affiliations of those police officers therein were treated as privacy violations. The court cites Art. 2 of the law of January 6, 1978, which makes makes it illegal for private sector entities to process personal identifying information without first registering with a government commission (CNIL). Moreover, dissemination of that personal identifying information has to be done under conditions that respect the privacy of the persons in question. The court also treats certain statements made about the police on the website as defamatory.

The "defamation" claim at the end may make some people think that this move is more justified, but a later comment clarifies the statements seen as "defamatory." None appeared to implicate any individual, but rather complain about the police in general and seem to be pretty obvious hyperbole -- i.e., things that wouldn't normally be seen as defamatory. The privacy claim is simply ridiculous. It seems to assume privacy rights where none exist.

It's difficult to see how this decision is anything other than an attempt by the French courts to hide police misconduct. That seems rather shameful.

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Filed Under: censorship, france, police, videos

30 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 19 Oct 2011 @ 1:04pm

France: New Nazi Germany.
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- Keith_Emperor_of_Penguins (profile), 19 Oct 2011 @ 1:06pm
  
  Re:
  They surrendered
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  - WysiWyg (profile), 20 Oct 2011 @ 12:13am
    
    Re: Re:
    No they didn't! Check up on you history, the France that exists today comes from the ones that did NOT surrender, that fought tooth and nails!
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- Anonymous Coward, 19 Oct 2011 @ 1:39pm
  
  Re:
  wow the first comment is a Godwin! You could have said France the new Stalinist ... but no you went straight for hitler. -10 internets. Please disconnect your self from the interwebs!
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  - btr1701 (profile), 19 Oct 2011 @ 1:47pm
    
    Re: Re:
    > wow the first comment is a Godwin!
    
    Wow, and it only took three comments before another of those tiresome references to Godwin popped up.
    
    Once upon a time some guy on the internet made a comment about Nazis and folks like you act like it's become one of the immutable laws of the universe.
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    - :Lobo Santo (profile), 19 Oct 2011 @ 1:49pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Gravity, the Speed of Light, Rule 34--some things really are immutable laws of the universe.
      
      :-P
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      - Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2011 @ 2:17am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        I thought that the speed of light law was currently under review due to the faster than light particles being supposedly discovered?
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        Hephaestus (profile), 20 Oct 2011 @ 7:10am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        The speed of light, not just a good idea, its the law!
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    - Anonymous Coward, 19 Oct 2011 @ 3:44pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      umadbro
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    - Anonymous Coward, 19 Oct 2011 @ 7:24pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      He just learned what the Godwin law is, give the troll a break. He needs to spam the world with it for a few weeks and then we'll be all good.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Oct 2011 @ 1:42pm

ribbit, ribbit.
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Joe Citoyen, 19 Oct 2011 @ 1:43pm

Don't they remember the last time the government became too oppressive? I guess if all else fails there's always room for a shave with the national razor.
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- Gus Jenkins, 20 Oct 2011 @ 4:15am
  
  Re:
  No. The national razor is being sharpened and reserved for the common people who sneak back onto the Internet after their third strike.
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Vic, 19 Oct 2011 @ 1:48pm

Are you sure that their government is by the people and for the people? I suspect they are still longing for an emperor...
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monkyyy, 19 Oct 2011 @ 1:51pm

well..... who didnt see this coming? after the 3 strike laws
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Atkray (profile), 19 Oct 2011 @ 1:55pm

Actually it makes sense.
�How can they have a secret police if people put their pictures on the internet?
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gorehound (profile), 19 Oct 2011 @ 2:00pm

Use a server in Germany !
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Oct 2011 @ 2:02pm

Don't worry. The censorship of that site is only temporary; full transparency will resume as soon as the French government resolves the current cake shortage crisis.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Oct 2011 @ 2:07pm

Remarkably, the privacy laws in Europe (and France) are different from the US. Go figure.
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- abc gum, 19 Oct 2011 @ 5:51pm
  
  Re:
  Remarkably, censorship abounds no matter where you go.
  Funny how "privacy" is used here - and the fact that only some people are afforded it.
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anonymous, 19 Oct 2011 @ 2:31pm

strange how this ruling has come out in favour of the police but the rights to privacy of the people are non-existent. are the police not employed by the people? are they not supposed to uphold the law, not abuse it? seems that France is following in the foot steps of USA. the police can (and do) do whatever the hell they want, with no recourse
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- Bergman (profile), 20 Oct 2011 @ 11:00pm
  
  Re:
  Actually, they have the same recourse they exercised in 1789. When government fully loses touch with the common people, the result is inevitable. The only question is how soon.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 20 Oct 2011 @ 12:05am

I was reading about this over on boingboing, and some people read the ruling.

The court was not against having videos and such posted, they were however against the mean words being used to describe them. Infact if they removed some of the commentary it could stand.

While I dislike the idea of speech being restrained, its France and they have different laws. This was more about the descriptions of the officers as less than human rather than about the videos.
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Oct 2011 @ 2:20am
  
  Re:
  I hope this is true. Its still censorship, but atleast for a fair reason
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Major, 20 Oct 2011 @ 1:35am

Ok...Here is what i think after checking the facts
I am not exactly trying to defend them but after reading the pdf in french, i checked a most of the document and found what the admin of the website wrote :

"Nous n�h�siterons pas � user de termes s�v�res � l��gard de la Police et de la Gendarmerie, car nous consid�rons ces institutions comme la fosse commune de l�humanit�, le charnier de l��volution, la mise � mort quotidienne de la d�ontologie et de l��thique. Nous serons sans �quivoque"

Which translate :

"We won't hesitate to use harsh words toward Police and Gendarmerie, because we consider these institutions as the common grave of mankind, the mass grave of evolution, the daily death of Conduct and Ethics. We will be clear in that matter."

Might be a little harsh if you put all of them in the same basket. Thats why i dont think the defamation case is that far fetched. The two institution doesn't even get along very well :)

Puting the videos aside, The privacy claim ain't exactly ridiculous :
"le site proc�de � une op�ration de collecte de donn�es � caract�re personnel en diffusant des photographies, noms et affectations de fonctionnaires de police"

the website admin was collecting personnal info of many officer storing picture,name,address and workplace.

I may be a little biased about that but, if i was a police officer hated because of a few rotten apple. i wouldn't feel secure having my personal information available online...

Ok nevermind, in the news they are saying that the guys actually found most of these infos using Facebook, i cannot defend any officer using that -_-
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- Hans B PUFAL (profile), 20 Oct 2011 @ 7:17am
  
  Re: Ok...Here is what i think after checking the facts
  Regardless of the merits of the case, making ISP's block the web site has no effect, proven by my gaining access to the site after calling up a Google search for "free proxy", the second on the list gave me access. Yes I live in France and yes the site is inaccessible via direct browsing.
  
  So, since I CAN still access the site, should I contact my ISP to let them know that they are breaking the law?
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  - Major, 20 Oct 2011 @ 8:01am
    
    Re: Re: Ok...Here is what i think after checking the facts
    I am indeed against censorship in all its form but was there any (non violent) way to make him remove at least the personal data of the officer ? the name and workplace might be fine, but picture and address ?
    
    The issue here is that the site admin is probably hard to argue with... Oh well.
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eddy albert, 23 Oct 2011 @ 5:14pm

police misconduct
When you act as a public servant (a policeman in this case) you must accept responsibility for what you do in that role. You must not be protected by your status as a private person.(You can do that when you take off your uniform).

KEEP THEM ACCOUNTABLE!
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2011 @ 3:47am

Police state.
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william, 7 Nov 2011 @ 6:21am

Gatineau police
Take a look at this video that has gone viral on the internet about Gatineau police conduct shooting animals near a school:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jry92dhOtaw
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