Yesterday I read a translation of a french news story on the blog Sketchy Thoughts about french bloggers being arrested in connection with the Paris riots. Today Guerilla Science links to a story on Boston.com from the AP that says two french teens “were to be placed under investigation, a step short of formal charges, for inciting harm to people and property over the Internet..”.
During the rioting, bloggers have posted appeals for calm alongside insults targeting police, threats of more violence and warnings that the unrest will feed support for France’s anti-immigration extreme right.
One of the blogs was called “sarkodead” — a reference to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who inflamed passions when he called troublemakers “scum.” Both “sarkodead” and “hardcore” were hosted by Skyblog, a branch of the popular Skyrock radio station.
The blogs were taken off line this weekend, and the radio station cooperated with police, judicial officials said.
The story is by Associated Press Writer, Pierre-Antoine Souchard. Here are all the links on Google news to other media sites carrying this story. I’m facinated by how long it takes a story to travel from French language media to English language media. Just how does this happen? Are reporters who write French and English writing multiple versions and then submitting them to news wires like the AP?
But back to the story… This appears to be a serious form of political harassment by the French police. If you belive the rioting in Paris is a form of class warfare you understand that these bloggers may be insurgents. I’m not suggesting that there is any justification for violence. But I do feel a sense of solidarity with those that are fighting a racist, classist, and unjust government. Hopefully we’ll get more information and see who these bloggers are, what they actually did, and why they are being investigated. May they have strength and resolve.
