French Repression?

by Armed Liberal at June 20, 2003 2:54 AM

Scanning Instapundit, I notice that Glenn has a blurb up that says:

STILL MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT: This time in France, where a book on the ELF scandal is being suppressed.

Amnesty International? Reporters Without Borders? Go to it.

Clicking through to Porphy's site, I find:

This speaks for itself:
A Paris court last night halted publication of a book by a former investigating magistrate that claims France is institutionally corrupt.

The book by Eva Joly, who uncovered political and financial corruption at the Elf oil company, is the first by a judge to have been blocked by the French courts.

The stay is only "temporary", but the precedent it establishes is. . .telling.
Arnaud Montebourg, a Socialist MP, said she should be given the Legion d'Honneur rather than be attacked for her honesty.

Mme Joly, 57, said the French establishment was one of the most rotten in Europe. "It is a country of networks that don't like to be challenged."

Yes. Quite. And the EU is a rough beast being born in its image.
Clicking through to the original story, I find:
A Paris court last night halted publication of a book by a former investigating magistrate that claims France is institutionally corrupt.

The book by Eva Joly, who uncovered political and financial corruption at the Elf oil company, is the first by a judge to have been blocked by the French courts.

The court ruled that publication of Is This The World We Want To Live In? might prejudice the trial of former Elf executives, now in its third month, which has already revealed the extent of political and financial corruption in France.

The court ordered that publication, intended for today, must be postponed until the trial is over. Mme Joly said she would appeal.

(emphasis mine)

The last thing I'd do in the world is try to argue specific issues of law with a law professor (something about an ear full of apple cider...). And I'm interested in how U.S. courts would deal/have dealt with similar situations.

But on its face, the request to delay publication until the trial is complete - ostensibly to improve the chances of a fair trial - doesn't seem outrageously repressive to me.

But what do I know, I don't think the French are evil, either.

All rights reserved. This article can be found on the Internet at:

http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/french_repression.php

Persons wishing to contact the author of this article for reprints etc. should put a request in the Comments section, or send an email to "joe", over here @windsofchange.net.