[WikiEN-l] Re: Fair use in the UK

Tue Feb 24 21:24:38 UTC 2004

I remember that discussion of last year Jimbo.
Afaik, there was no fine, just threat of a fine.
Politics.

Sheldon Rampton a écrit:
> Jimbo wrote:
> 
>> For example, a British newspaper distributed in France was fined for
>> calling Jacques Chirac a worm.  That's an inexcusable violation of
>> human rights on the part of the French government, but it doesn't seem
>> likely to cause us any trouble since we srupulously avoid making ALL
>> controversial claims.  We would, of course, report on the flap, in a
>> neutral manner, but French law is not (to my knowledge) an obstacle to
>> that.
> 
> 
> Are you sure of that? I remember the "worm" incident. The Sun, a British 
> tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, carried a front-page, full-page 
> illustration in which they doctored to a photo of Chirac's head by 
> putting it on a worm's body. The only mention of a fine that I can find, 
> however, is the following report in the Guardian:
> 
> http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,900093,00.html
> 
> This report says that the Sun "could be forced to pay a £30,000 fine," 
> noting that the French capital is "unused to a press that taunts 
> politicians so openly. ... The tabloid's controversial stance breaks a 
> French law that makes it a criminal offence to insult the president. 
> Breaking the law carries a fine up 45,000 euros." However, it doesn't 
> say that a fine was actually levied or that anyone even attempted to do 
> so. This story was then picked up in "Little Green Footballs," a 
> pro-war, conservative blog, which complained that "the Sun will be fined 
> 30,000 pounds" because of the stunt. However, LGF's only source is the 
> Guardian article:
> 
> http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=5641
> 
> If someone wants to criticize the French law, I'd have no problem with 
> that (just as I'd have no problem with someone criticizing England's 
> repressive libel law). In practice, however, British libel laws don't 
> prevent the tabloids from engaging in reckless and often obnoxious 
> journalism, and the same is probably true in France. The mere fact that 
> a law is on the books doesn't mean that it is always (or even often) 
> enforced.
> 
> The "worm" incident is probably just one more example of the Murdoch 
> media's habit of acting like jerks and then pretending they've been 
> persecuted for it when they haven't.