Macron Threatens Free Expression in France
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
In recent years, fundamental freedoms eroded greatly in America and Europe – police state harshness replacing them on the phony pretext of enhancing security.
Former National Front leader Marine Le Pen was charged with circulating “violent messages that incite terrorism,” a gross perversion of truth, a violation of her fundamental free expression right.
If convicted, she faces up to three years in prison and a 75,000 euro fine for posting violent images of ISIS abuses on her Twitter page in 2015.
They included a photo of decapitated US journalist James Foley, a tank rolling over a man, another man burned alive – examples of US-supported ISIS atrocities, ignored by media scoundrels.
Not by Le Pen, in trouble for explaining important truths, her photos captioned: “Daesh is THIS!”
In response to protests from Foley family members, she removed his image. Others remain – in response to hostile French media equating her and the National Front with ISIS, a disgraceful perversion of truth.
Immune from prosecution as a National Assembly member, legislators stripped her of protection last November, disgracefully citing a “serious, loyal and sincere demand for justice.”
Le Pen remains defiant, saying she’s charged under a law intended to protect children from so-called unacceptable Internet content, adding:
“I am being charged for having condemned the horrors of Daesh.”
“In other countries, this would have earned me a medal. I am therefore worried about fighting terrorism. It’s the world upside down.” She denounced what she called a “lowly, purely political decision.”
On the phony pretext of “defend(ing) liberal democracy,” Macron earlier expressed support for legislation criminalizing “fake news” – targeting content diverging from the official narrative, notably reports aired by RT and Sputnik News.
Britain, America, and other Western countries are targeting free expression, especially online, the Trump administration rescinding Net Neutrality.
It’s a disturbing policy perhaps leading to Internet censorship, undermining the last frontier of digital democracy.
If Le Pen is imprisoned and fined for exercising her free expression right, what’s next – officially abolishing liberte, egalite and fraternite in France, similar abolitions in other Western countries, full-blown tyranny replacing them?
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