Newsgroups: alt.censorship,talk.politics.misc From: wdstarr@world.std.com (William December Starr) Subject: French Interior Minister Takes Assholism to New Heights Message-ID: Sender: wdstarr@world.std.com (William December Starr) Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 16:34:07 GMT Lines: 40 Found this on page 32 of the 4/19/94 Boston Globe. (Note to ClariNet folks: since you carry Reuters articles, what follows is probably close to textually identical to something you posted into at least one of your newsgroups. For what it's worth, though, I did _not_ hijack your work; rather, I've typed this article in by hand, and I'm claiming sanctuary under the Fair Use Doctrine.) -=-=-=- cut here -=-=-=- cut here -=-=-=- cut here -=-=-=- France plans law curbing racist, xenophobic writing --------------------------------------------------- PARIS (Reuters) -- France is preparing a new law to bar the spreading of racist or xenophobic ideas, an aide to Interior Minister Charles Pasqua said yesterday. Patrick Gaubert, pasqua's advisor on racism and anti-Semitism, said a bill "making it possible to fight against the most visible expressions of racism" would be put to parliament in September. "We can't change what people have in their minds, but we can prevent people from writing anything and everything," he said. The bill would provide for up to two years imprisonment and a fine of up to $85,000 [U.S.] for incitement to racial discrimination, hatred or violence. It would widen legislation to make it possible to prosecute theorists of racial ideas, as well as publishers. Police would be empowered to seize racist handbills. Racist groups would be defined as criminal conspiracies and the statute of limitations would be amended to prosecute racists for up to one year after the offending remarks. Gaubert denied that the intention was to compensate for tough immigration and nationality laws that Pasqua pushed through last year, which human rights groups and church leaders attacked as discriminatory.