Where Were the Post-Hebdo Free Speech Crusaders as France Spent the Last
Year Crushing Free Speech?
Published on
Friday, January 08, 2016
by
The Intercept
Where Were the Post-Hebdo Free Speech Crusaders as France Spent the Last
Year Crushing Free Speech?
by
Glenn Greenwald
People attend a demonstration in solidarity with those killed in an attack
at the Paris offices of weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, at the French
Consulate in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Jan 7, 2015. (Photo: AP/Manu
Fernandez)
Its been almost one year since millions of people led by the worlds most
repressive tyrants marched in Paris ostensibly in favor of free speech.
Since then, the French government which led the way trumpeting the vital
importance of free speech in the wake of the Charlie Hedbo killings has
repeatedly prosecuted people for the political views they expressed, and
otherwise exploited terrorism fears to crush civil liberties generally. They
have done so with barely a peep of protest from most of those throughout the
west who waved free speech flags in support of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists.
Thats because, as I argued at the time, many of these newfound free speech
crusaders exploiting the Hedbo killings were not authentic, consistent
believers in free speech. Instead, they invoke that principle only in the
easiest and most self-serving instances: namely, defense of the ideas they
support. But when people are punished for expressing ideas they hate, they
are silent or supportive of that suppression: the very opposite of genuine
free speech advocacy.
Days after the Paris march, the French government arrested the comedian
Dieudonné Mbala Mbala for being an apologist for terrorism after
suggesting on Facebook that he sympathized with one of the Paris gunmen.
Two months later, he was convicted, receiving a suspended two-month jail
sentence. In November, on separate charges, he was convicted by a Belgian
court for racist and anti-Semitic comments he made during a show in
Belgium and was given a two month prison term. There were no
#JeSuisDieudonné hashtags trending, and its almost impossible to find the
loudest post-Hedbo Free Speech crusaders denouncing the French and Belgian
governments for this attack on free expression.
In the weeks after the Free Speech march, dozens of people in France were
arrested for hate speech or other acts insulting religious faiths, or for
cheering the men who carried out the attacks. The government ordered
prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism
and glorifying terrorism. There were no marches in defense of their free
speech rights.
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Where Were the Post-Hebdo Free Speech Crusaders as France Spent the Last
Year Crushing Free Speech?
Published on
Friday, January 08, 2016
by
The Intercept
Where Were the Post-Hebdo Free Speech Crusaders as France Spent the Last
Year Crushing Free Speech?
by
Glenn Greenwald
4 Comments
People attend a demonstration in solidarity with those killed in an
attack at the Paris offices of weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, at the French
Consulate in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Jan 7, 2015. (Photo: AP/Manu
Fernandez)
Its been almost one year since millions of people led by the
worlds most repressive tyrants marched in Paris ostensibly in favor of
free speech. Since then, the French government which led the way
trumpeting the vital importance of free speech in the wake of the Charlie
Hedbo killings has repeatedly prosecuted people for the political views
they expressed, and otherwise exploited terrorism fears to crush civil
liberties generally. They have done so with barely a peep of protest from
most of those throughout the west who waved free speech flags in support of
Charlie Hebdo cartoonists.
Thats because, as I argued at the time, many of these newfound free
speech crusaders exploiting the Hedbo killings were not authentic,
consistent believers in free speech. Instead, they invoke that principle
only in the easiest and most self-serving instances: namely, defense of the
ideas they support. But when people are punished for expressing ideas they
hate, they are silent or supportive of that suppression: the very opposite
of genuine free speech advocacy.
Days after the Paris march, the French government arrested the
comedian Dieudonné Mbala Mbala for being an apologist for terrorism
after suggesting on Facebook that he sympathized with one of the Paris
gunmen. Two months later, he was convicted, receiving a suspended two-month
jail sentence. In November, on separate charges, he was convicted by a
Belgian court for racist and anti-Semitic comments he made during a show in
Belgium and was given a two month prison term. There were no
#JeSuisDieudonné hashtags trending, and its almost impossible to find the
loudest post-Hedbo Free Speech crusaders denouncing the French and Belgian
governments for this attack on free expression.
In the weeks after the Free Speech march, dozens of people in France
were arrested for hate speech or other acts insulting religious faiths, or
for cheering the men who carried out the attacks. The government ordered
prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism
and glorifying terrorism. There were no marches in defense of their free
speech rights.
