A French Court Has Ordered Internet Service Providers to Block Access to Any Website That “Allow[s] Civilians to Post Videos of Alleged Police Misconduct”

University of Pittsburgh School of Law

[JURIST] The Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris [official website, in French] on Friday ordered [judgment in PDF, in French] French Internet service providers to block access to Copwatch Nord Paris I-D-F, a website designed to allow civilians to post videos of alleged police misconduct. The decision was applauded by the police union, Alliance Police Nationale (APN) [union website, in French], which argued that the website incited violence against police. Jean-Claude Delage, secretary general of the APN, said that "[t]he judges have analyzed the situation perfectly—this site being a threat to the integrity of the police — and made the right decision." Opponents of Internet censorship were also quick to comment on the judgment. Jeremie Zimmermann, spokesman for La Quadrature du Net [advocacy website], a Paris-based net neutrality organization, called the order "an obvious will by the French government to control and censor citizens' new online public sphere." The site was ordered to be blocked immediately. 

 

France does not have an equivalent to the US First Amendment [text], which prohibits the government from making any law "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." In August, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit [official website] ruled that there is a clearly-established First Amendment right [JURIST report] to film police officers performing their duties in a public space. The Center for Constitutional Rights [advocacy website] filed an amicus brief [PDF] in the case arguing that concerned individuals and cop-watch groups have a right to record the activity of police in the public. The case stems from a 2007 incident when police officers arrested Simon Gilk after he openly recorded three police officers arresting a suspect on the Boston Common.