France Attempts to Control Reporting of Violence

France bans citizen journalists from reporting violenceIDG News ServiceThe French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.The broad drafting of the law so as to criminalize the activities of citizen journalists unrelated to the perpetrators of violent acts is no accident, but rather a deliberate decision by the authorities, said Cohet. He is concerned that the law, and others still being debated, will lead to the creation of a parallel judicial system controlling the publication of information on the Internet.The government has also proposed a certification system for Web sites, blog hosters, mobile-phone operators and Internet service providers, identifying them as government-approved sources of information if they adhere to certain rules. The journalists’ organization Reporters Without Borders, which campaigns for a free press, has warned that such a system could lead to excessive self censorship as organizations worried about losing their certification suppress certain stories. - / -A reader might wonder why the French government is trying to control the media. The answer is simple.France is spiraling out of control.France took in millions of North African immigrants, not understanding the long term consequences of doing so. Now the French people face increasing violence from an immigrant community that has given birth to millions of children. Children who feel alienated from a society they can never truly be a part of as non-French, and who cannot or will not find jobs. Due to their high birth rate, and low native French birth rates, by the end of the 21st century the majority of France's population will be non-French Muslims. The societal forces at work are leading to predictable and violent ends.The French government is trying to mitigate the spread of fear and panic amongst the French population by preventing citizens from showing what's really going on. And it's not going to work.