French Authorities Demonstrate Defense Of Free Speech By Arresting 54 People For Free Speech

By Michael Krieger: While I’m sure many of the millions of French citizens who marched in solidarity with the victims of the recent senseless violence and in the name of free speech came with genuine intentions, the corps of professional authoritarians, I mean politicians, who tagged along in order to pose for a staged photo op, clearly had less than noble intentions. Indeed, they likely spent the entire time scheming as to how the tragedy might be used to strip more rights away from their citizens.
The absurdity of well known tyrants standing arm in arm to support freedom of expression was laughable from the start. Many commentators have covered this shameless act of hypocrisy, including myself in the post: NOUS SOMME HYPOCRITES – Authoritarian, Anti-Free Speech Politicians Pose for Staged Photo Op in Paris.
It didn’t take long for the apparent hypocrisy to manifest itself in real life. First, we heard about David Cameron’s absurd call to ban encryption, which is essentially a call to outlaw private communications. Now we see French leadership turn into a complete and total caricature of itself by arresting 54 people for speech (including a controversial comedian for Facebook comments), negating the values the rally on Sunday was ostensibly so passionately defending.
The AP reports that:

PARIS (AP) — France ordered prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and glorifying terrorism and announced Wednesday it was sending an aircraft carrier to the Mideast to work more closely with the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants. 

Authorities said 54 people had been arrested for hate speech and defending terrorism in the last week. The crackdown came as Charlie Hebdo’s defiant new issue sold out before dawn around Paris, with scuffles at kiosks over dwindling copies of the satirical weekly that fronted the Prophet Muhammad anew on its cover.
France has been tightening security and searching for accomplices since the terror attacks began, but none of the 54 people mentioned Wednesday have been linked to the attacks. That’s raising questions about whether Hollande’s Socialist government is impinging on the very freedom of speech that it so vigorously defends when it comes to Charlie Hebdo.

Among those detained was Dieudonne, a popular and controversial comic who has repeated convictions for racism and anti-Semitism.

The Justice Ministry said the 54 people included four minors and several had already been convicted under special measures for immediate sentencing. Inciting terrorism can bring a 5-year prison term — or up to 7 years for inciting terrorism online.
Special measures? These people admittedly have no links to the attacks, are being targeted solely for speech, and “special measures” are needed for sentencing? Incredibly ironic that France’s response to the attacks is to mimic the behavior of those they claim to stand against.

The government is writing broader new laws on phone-tapping and other intelligence to fight terrorism, spokesman Stephane Le Foll said.
Defending his caricature of Muhammad on the paper’s latest cover, Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Renald Luzier argued that no exceptions should be made when it comes to the freedom of expression.

I wonder if Mr. Luzier has come out in defense of Dieudonne’s free speech, or is some speech more equal than others?
Indeed, Glenn Greenwald accurately notes that the political charade of solidarity on Sunday was actually an attempt to harden free speech rights when it comes to speech justifying Western wars abroad, while cracking down on free speech that is less politically popular. He writes:

Think about the “defending terrorism” criminal offense for which Dieudonné has been arrested. Should it really be a criminal offense – causing someone to be arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned – to say something along these lines: western countries like France have been bringing violence for so long to Muslims in their countries that I now believe it’s justifiable to bring violence to France as a means of making them stop? If you want “terrorism defenses” like that to be criminally prosecuted (as opposed to societally shunned), how about those who justify, cheer for and glorify the invasion and destruction of Iraq, with its “Shock and Awe” slogan signifying an intent to terrorize the civilian population into submission and itsmonstrous tactics in Fallujah? Or how about the psychotic calls from a Fox News host, when discussing Muslims radicals, to “kill them ALL.” Why is one view permissible and the other criminally barred – other than because the force of law is being used to control political discourse and one form of terrorism (violence in the Muslim world) is done by, rather than to, the west?

Finally, Matt Welch over at Reason, perfectly outlines the two main reasons why all speech should be permitted in a free society. He notes that:

1) As I argue in my latest editor’s note on policing in America, most laws tend to be enforced more stringently on disfavored minorities. Muslims are the least favored minority in France, which means that any crackdown is likely to come down disproportionately on their heads (despite the Interior Minister’s nod toward “Islamophobia”), increasing both the perception and reality of unfairness. And to the extent that alienation and non-assimilation of the Muslim minority contributes to the pool of potential malefactors, that seems strategically unwise.
2) Any speech made criminally taboo will thrive unchallenged in the shadows, rather than be refuted and ridiculed out in the open. If you’re alarmed by Dieudonné’s infamous quenellegesture, how popular do you think it will get if he’s behind bars?

His second point is one that I have written about previously, specifically in the post, The UK’s Conservative Party Declares War on YouTube, Twitter, Free Speech and Common Sense. Here’s an excerpt:

Some of the most memorable moments of my tabloid-filled youth consisted of watching Geraldo Rivera interviewing and confronting Neo-Nazis and racists both in his studio and on the streets. Often times, these heated encounters resulted in brawls such as the one in this video, which has over 600,000 views on YouTube.
Geraldo and many others gave “a voice” to countless hateful groups on a regular basis throughout my youth, and millions of my fellow Americans saw them and were exposed to their unenlightened and pathetic ideology. This didn’t result in hordes of youth turning to violent extremism or the beginning of a Fourth Reich. Rather, what these interviews successfully did was expose the idiocy of these groups and make them even more isolated than they were before. That is how things work in a functioning free society. You aren’t afraid of ideas, you exchange them.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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