France’s Sarkozy announces plans to jail repeat visitors to extremist websites

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

France’s president proposed a sweeping new law Thursday that would see repeat visitors to extremist web sites put behind bars — one of several tough measures floated in the wake of a murderous shooting spree.

The proposed rules, unveiled by Nicolas Sarkozy after the death of an Islamist fanatic wanted for a horrifying series of execution-style murders, have alarmed journalists and legal experts, who say they risk pulling the plug on free expression.

... “Anyone who regularly consults Internet sites which promote terror or hatred or violence will be sentenced to prison,” he told a campaign rally in Strasbourg, in eastern France. “Don’t tell me it’s not possible. What is possible for pedophiles should be possible for trainee terrorists and their supporters, too.”

... “Trying to criminalize a visit — a simple visit — to a website, that’s something that seems disproportionate,” said Lucie Morillon, who runs the new media bureau of journalists’ watchdog group Reporters Without Borders.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/frances-sarkozy-announces-plans-to-prosecute-people-who-often-visit-extremist-websites/2012/03/22/gIQA9K0vTS_story.html

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Glad I am not in France.

This seems wildly out of line. I read neo-Nazi sites every now and again. It is useful for research and comparision to various hate crimes, especially against Jews and gays. I am sure there are those who study racism and crimes against ethnic minorities that also frequent those sites, as well as white nationalist sites. This is a crazy suggestion.

[LetTimmySmoke]

14. Yeah don't listen to this in France or you'll go to jail

[fujiyama]

15. This is just over the top

Unless there is overt planning of an actual terrorist attack, criminalization of speech over the internet is a very bad idea, though it's obvious that google and facebook are trying to make it easier to eliminate anonymity over the internet.

Along with SOPA here in the US, it's kind of interesting that the recent threat of free speech on the internet comes from Western governments.

Hell in this case, he's not even talking about participating on such a site. He's talking about visiting them. Sometimes I might click on a link to a site I find repulsive out of curiosity to see what the freaks are saying. That doesn't mean I actually agree with a damn thing they have to say.

[msongs]

2. maybe sarkozy is going senile? nt

[MADem]

4. No-he is reacting to the news and the 3rd place candidate--see my post below. NT

[mackattack]

5. exactly

[MADem]

3. Ain't That Special! And he's not even the extremist in the French presidential race!

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/extremist-suspect-upends-french-presidential-race-15976445

French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen says her anti-Islam agenda has been vindicated: A French Muslim claiming ties to al-Qaida has taken responsibility for the country's worst killing spree in years.

The specter of radical Islam's grip on France has threatened to overturn France's presidential race, in which Socialist Francois Hollande has long been the pollster's favorite to unseat the divisive conservative president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Le Pen, the No. 3 candidate in polls, said France must "wipe out" the Islamist threat, saying it has been minimized by authorities.

Sarkozy has borrowed from Le Pen's playbook in campaigning for the presidential election on April 22 and its expected runoff May 6, with talk of halving immigration and lamenting widespread availability of halal meat....

I guess the old "Harrrumph!!! I'll move to FRANCE!!!" shit ain't working so well, anymore....although I do like halal meat--it's like kosher, is all--no assholes, ears, noses and duck feet!

[mackattack]

6. Yes, this is correct

BBC World News had a report on last night about Sarkozy's rhetorical move to the right. Its about taking votes from La Pen and Co.

[pampango]

12. Another far-right take: Radical Islamists taking over French suburbs, Le Pen says

Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen accused France's government on Thursday of surrendering poor suburbs to Islamic radicals and demanded more focus on the nation's security failings just weeks before a presidential election.

"The government is scared," said Le Pen, who took the reins of France's anti-immigrant National Front party from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen last year.

"I've been saying this for 10 years. Entire districts are in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists and I say it again today the danger is underestimated," she told France Info radio.

Most mainstream politicians on the left and right of the political spectrum say that she is dangerously stigmatizing large swathes of society.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/22/us-france-shootings-lepen-idUSBRE82L0QT20120322

[alp227]

7. does DU count? this sounds so much like thought police right here,

but then again France actually has hate speech laws instead of the 1st amendment.

[ladjf]

8. This is a dumb policy by Sarkozy. Further, I doubt that it is legal by French law. nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Could be as much of a fuck up as the University of Nottingham and its hounding of staff

The basic story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nottingham_Two

I won terror compensation, but my struggle for justice continues

The police have been held to account over my arrest and detention as a suspected terrorist, but my university has not

On this day, three years ago, I was asked by the Guardian to write a comment piece on my arrest and detention (and release without charge) as a suspected terrorist whilst I was conducting postgraduate research at the University of Nottingham. Exactly three years later, I am writing about the same issue, but with an element of vindication because only days ago, a three-year legal battle against Nottinghamshire police came to an end, a legal battle that I categorically won.
...
People such as those in positions of power at the University of Nottingham who not only discriminated against me but suspended honourable and brave people such as Dr Rod Thornton because he dared to write a whistle-blowing paper that exposed serious malpractice and misconduct that the University of Nottingham participated in when, for example, they tried to prevent me from proceeding to a PhD. Because there is no public authority in the whole of the United Kingdom that can hold British universities to account, only a public inquiry can reveal the possible extent of malpractice.

The lack of university accountability at Nottingham has ruined my life and many other people's lives over the past three years, and it must be held to account. Until then, the struggle for justice will continue.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/19/terror-compensation-police-university

All this from downloading something from a website of that extremist group the US government. Dr. Rod Thornton still appears to be suspended from the university (they've removed his staff page), but he continues to work with that extremist group : http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/people.cfm?authorID=828

Site with the leaks showing how the university spied on its students : http://academicfreedom.co.uk/

[Devil_Fish]

10. If that law was enacted here, all of freeperville would be gone.

Just sayin,

Not advocating, I think it's a terible idea, and a slippery slope.

[Mc Mike]

11. This is a perfectly reasonable sequence of events.

A nazi commits an atrocity, then the government response is a nazi injunction against all the world's citizens.

I love the French, and Sarkozy was great when he gamed l'il bush on the international p.r. scene, but nevertheless, wtf.

[LetTimmySmoke]

13. One step closer to a totalitarian 1984-type society.

Orwell was dead right in his predictions - he just got the timing off.

[Bruce Wayne]

16. Oy! So much for Liberte and Equalite

Paternalistic big brother crap. I guess we've done worse in this country's past. But do they really not get the concept of defending the rights of those who you disagree with?

[Bruce Wayne]

17. Further thought: I wonder if the cops monitoring these websites...

will start arresting each other?