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.