France begins jailing people for ironic comments

[kpete]

France begins jailing people for ironic comments
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Mon, 01/19/2015 - 13:36
charlie-hebdo-cest-de-la-merde.jpg

Mock Charlie Hebdo cover circulated after the murder of the magazine’s cartoonists. The text says “Charlie Hebdo is shit. It doesn’t stop bullets.”

?itok=YUvtxzTy

It may sound like an ironic joke, but it isn’t. Less than a week after the massive rallies in defense of “free expression,” following the murders of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, French authorities have jailed a youth for irony.

The arrest is part of a harsh crackdown on free speech in the country that has prompted criticism from national and international human rights organizations.

A 16-year-old high school student was taken into police custody on Thursday and indicted for “defending terrorism,” national broadcaster France 3 reports.

His alleged crime? He posted on Facebook a cartoon “representing a person holding the magazine Charlie Hebdo, being hit by bullets, and accompanied by an ‘ironic’ comment,” France 3 reports.


http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-begins-jailing-people-ironic-comments

[jberryhill]

1. The French can't handle satire, and must respond with physical force

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Frightening precedence.

We are so close to that here, too.
There have been many examples of the Reich Wing going into uproar over a comment.
Free speech rights have been shredded here.