France to criminalize filming violence by non journalists

[cyberianpan]

Interesting given all the "think of the children" threads riased here on kiddie porn that the French are looking at violence in the same way:

6th March

The 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

[quote:1uvbzolr]
Fox
French lawmakers in favor of the rule said it targets the practice of filming or broadcasting violent acts for the purpose of amusement for the attacker's friends.

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
[/quote:1uvbzolr]

In a fashion professional journalists being allowed film violence is akin to doctors being allowed to examine nudie kiddies.

However being Napoleanic they've gone quite overboard (& are thinking of going further) ? Are they drawing a reasonable line twixt liberty & "greater social good" ? Does this highlight the folly of continued Eurpopean social integration ?

cYp

[Twin Towers]

The way you present it looks like an over reaction to "happy slapping".

[Simon.D]

Is that not akin to banning burglars from not wearing gloves? A videoed assualt provides valuable evidence to aid in conviction, regardless of the motive behind the footage.. I also think the fact that these video's often find their way into public arena's like youtube is vital to exposing the existence of this sort of behavior..

I suppose the flipside to this arguement is that capturing the footage can be the primary motivation behind the assault.. It's a small bit of a Catch 22..

Would such a law dissuade youths from filming these attacks, when the thugs involved are more than willing to ignore other, more serious laws in physically assualting another person?