72 Final Project
tabar7
As we all know there is an ongoing situation happening across France. This situation revolves around President Macron’s decision to push the minimum retirement from 62 to 64 and require over 43 years of work in order to receive a full pension. Macron is pushing for this bill for a few reasons. The first is so more money is going into the retirement fund, as he believes it will run out soon, and the second is to boost France’s economy. While these both seem like legitimate reasons, the French public is very against the bill (Corbet, 2023). The discontent with this bill within the French public has resulted in strikes and protests. But, it is not the bill itself I want to focus on, but the outcomes of the protests on the French public and many domestic and international journalists. The unfair treatment of citizens and journalists is telling of how the French government handles and has handled free speech in the country. This issue regarding the change in retirement age is very complex, and not only affects the legal, social, and political environment of the country, but it has affected France’s free speech and has had detrimental effects on the press.
In my last few posts I have been covering the basics on what is happening in France, but as protests become more hasty, more problems keep coming to light. The first problem that we really came to see had to do with the number of protestors in the country (Wikimedia Foundation, 2023). While it is obvious that the public and certain parts of the government are in disagreement on the new bill, they seem to have disagreements on the number of protestors as well.In my last few posts I have been covering the basics on what is happening in France, but as protests become more hasty, more problems keep coming to light. The first problem that we really came to see had to do with the number of protestors in the country (Wikimedia Foundation, 2023). While it is obvious that the public and certain parts of the government are in disagreement on the new bill, they seem to have disagreements on the number of protestors as well.
As shown on the graph, unions were reporting very high numbers of protestors, while police were not showing nearly the same numbers. While on each day both parties followed the same trends, it is unclear who had the correct information. This is our first sign of misleading information dealing with the protests. We will later see that these issues of misinformation have formed into concerns of free speech and censorship of the press, regardless of what is held true in the constitution.
Under constitutional law, French citizens are granted free speech, as well as freedom of the press, but there are indirect pressures from the government to stop certain publications (Censorship In France, 2023). Support from the government can be very important sometimes, and it is hard to say that there are certain freedoms when these indirect threats are very real. If the government does not support a certain publication, it is possible that they will lose some sort of revenue, which ultimately directs them away from publishing something the government is not necessarily happy with. So while legally French citizens have these freedoms, they can be limited by certain governmental factors. The French are known to protest against legislation that they do not approve of, but there has never been this much controversy regarding protests they have held in the past, but we have seen the French government in the past limit free speech.
Free speech and censorship in France have had a complicated past. While some of the censorship today limits hate speech or very controversial topics and has had some beneficial properties, other examples have not been as positive. There are endless examples of censorship in France’s past, but some notable examples of negative moments of censorship just in the 21st century are: the Paris Match incident, the French Wikipedia Censorship, and the Constitutional Court Censorship (Censorship In France, 2023). All three of these examples are times in which the government used its power to cover itself or to go against the constitution for limiting hate speech. All three of these have had detrimental consequences and lead to other smaller incidents, and have all taken place in the past 17 years. The Wikipedia incident was regarding a section of a Wikipedia page that supposedly had classified military information on it. A representative of the government reached out to an intern to take it down, and when the intern explained it was much more complicated than that and could not, he was threatened with being charged or even arrested. (Censorship In France, 2023). As we have learned it is not as easy as editing a Wikipedia page to get information put up or to be taken down. With the government threatening someone who did not even publish the information or post is concerning and very much exposes the length the government will go to to see the results they want. On the other hand the Paris Match incident was not nearly as serious, but ultimately shows what kind of influence the French government has had over publications. The Paris Match published a cover showing the former President’s wife with another man, and when the president was not happy with it, it was taken off of the shelves and the next week the director was fired (Censorship In France, 2023). Although the government did not fully intervene, this shows just how much the words or approval of a president is even to the most popular publication in Paris. Seeing how the government can actually use their threats and influence to get real results shows that even if there are laws, it does not stop the censorship. This is important to remember when we consider the current events happening across France today.
As we have seen France does not have the cleanest history of allowing free speech or being supportive of the press, and recently during the protests this has come back to light. I chose two articles/stories to focus on that highlight how the recent turn of events in France have led to these rights of free speech and the censorship of the press to be highlighted. The bill that incited all of the protests and strikes is the one pertaining to raising the retirement age. While the bill in parliament received a no-confidence vote, Macron is going to try and bypass parliament to still push the vote through. This has caused Macron to have over a 70% of dissatisfaction rate among the citizens (Kasraoui, 2023). This bill, soon to be law, is obviously very unpopular, and the push to go forward with it shows just how influential and powerful the government can be. Ignoring citizens’ pleas to not go forward with the bill and still ignoring it is a big issue, but going through with the bill is not the only issue. During the protests many citizens and journalists have been hurt and arrested because of excessive force. One journalist, Fezia Ben Mohammed, came out and said how not allowing citizens to protest and silence their political opinion is wrong. Targeting journalists during the protests adds to the “regime of terror” (Kasraoui, 2023). What is interesting is how in 2017 during the Constitutional Court Censorship case, it was deemed not illegal to visit terrorist websites because the committee cited a bill that says it is part of people’s rights to express their own opinion. On the other hand, there is excessive force being used against citizens who are trying to express their opinion on a bill, and journalists who are just trying to report on the situation. It is interesting the ways the constitutional court and the government seem to interpret freedom of speech and ability to express one’s own opinion, especially when comparing protesting and terrorism. One person questioned the meaning for the arrests, as most people are being released without charges (Willsher, 2023). If those being arrested were actually doing something wrong, wouldn’t they be charged with something? Or were police just trying to get them off the streets and showing what could happen to other protestors. This tactic to scare and control citizens from protesting, especially when the first few months of protests were very peaceful with still no response, is harmful to the future of protesting in France. These actions are a direct threat to French citizens’ free speech. It has been shown in the past that the French government is okay with using implied threats to get what they want, and this seems to be a repeat of history.
Although, these were not the only incidents that have happened during the protests, and it seems to be getting worse. There are reports from Reporters without Borders that clearly identifiable journalists were being attacked by law enforcement, just as they were doing with protesting citizens (Willsher, 2023). There is a very obvious target on censoring the press as well as limiting free speech. Limiting and targeting journalists feels as if there is something to hide during these protests. Journalists are allowed to report on situations without fear of being arrested or harmed. Especially when French law allows for freedom of the press, limiting the stories going out about the protests are concerning. One very harsh and unnerving moment came from an authenticated voice recording between law enforcement and young protestors. This voice recording shows a police officer stating and threatening that they have broken elbows and faces (Willsher, 2023). This excessive threatening and scare tactics to stop young people, and people in general, from protesting and sharing their political opinion goes against the free speech laws. Even if the constitution allows free speech, and has very few limitations on censorship, I think these few examples show that that is not true. As protests continue and more to each story develops, there are more and more examples of the French government and law enforcement not silencing the citizens but those who want to spread information on the situation as well. A bill that is this unpopular should not be put through legislation if it is causing such harm to the citizens of the country. I think this is also showing the power of spreading information through social media. We have seen that quick sharing of information is sometimes the only way that average people see certain things. By censoring the press, or social media, it would be difficult for those outside of the country to get the full story.
When it comes to censoring the press and free speech, there are still a lot of issues in France. It seems as if the French government will do what they need to to get what they want done. With the bill soon to be turned into a law against the public opinion, and with parliament not passing the bill, it is interesting to see what the government will do to keep what they want at the forefront. Because this is a developing and continuous issue there is not anything being done about the limiting of free speech or censorship of the press. I feel like change and reflection will start once the protests are over and there is a conclusion to the bill, whether it does pass or not. While the issues going on in France ultimately surround Macron’s push to increase the retirement age and pension reform, it has uncovered many other issues in France. These issues pertaining to free speech and censorship of the press create challenges for the citizens and limit their freedoms given to them by the constitution. As seen throughout this paper, France has had many issues in the past regarding free speech, and this will most likely not be the last instance. Hopefully by bringing these issues to light there will be change in the future.
Censorship in France. (2023, March 17). Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_France
Corbet, S. (2023, March 17). France’s Macron risks his government to raise retirement age. AP NEWS. Retrieved April 23, 2023, from https://apnews.com/article/france-retirement-age-strikes-macron-garbage-07455d88d10bf7ae623043e4d05090de#
Kasraoui, S. (2023, March 21). Arbitrary arrests of journalists, citizens in France spark outrage. https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2023/03/354578/arbitrary-arrests-of-journalists-citizens-in-france-spark-outrage
Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, April 2). 2023 French pension reform strikes. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_French_pension_reform_strikes
Willsher, K. (2023, March 25). French police accused of using excessive force during pension protests. The Guardian. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/25/french-police-accused-of-using-excessive-force-during-pension-protests
