On Nov. 9, the International Herald-Tribune reported that French police have “arrested three people for comments on the online diaries known as blogs that are hosted by Skyblog. The site belongs to the nationwide radio station Skyrock, which has four million listeners daily and claims the largest audience of any radio station among 13-to-24-year-olds.”
The article continues:
“Those prosecuted for inciting violence in their postings this week included a 14-year-old from Aix-en-Provence who called on rioters to attack police stations, according to Justice Minister Pascal Clément. Blog entries of those arrested also included ones calling on youths in the Paris region to rise up at once in a coordinated attack. ‘Unite, Ile-de-France, and burn the cops,’ one of the postings said, according to Agence France-Presse. ‘Go to the nearest police station and burn it.’Another message called on youths in housing projects to start arson attacks between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Friday. Under French law, such calls to violence can result in sentences of one to seven years in prison.”
Hate media and incitement to violence are indeed very dangerous things…
When I read this story, I recalled the key role that hate radio played in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. However, the difference there was that the Rwandan hate radio campaign, complete with specific genocide instructions, was centrally planned and implemented by a group engaging in a coup. (As terrible and huge as the genocide of Rwandan Tutsis was, logistically it was only part of a larger coordinated effort by an organized faction to seize that nation’s government and shift the balance of power in Rwanda’s society and economy.)
From what I understand from the IHT article, the Skyblog comments were the product of individual rage, not a coordinated plot. Of course, it’ll be interesting to see what the French prosecution uncovers in those cases. You never know.
In their quest to undermine terrorism, governments around the world have grown increasingly wary of free speech. This may broaden what gets interpreted as “incitement,” especially in media channels popular with disenfranchised people.
Also from the IHT story:
“A recent speech by the president and founder of the radio station Skyrock, Pierre Belanger, described how he intended to develop a dialogue with and among young people in France. ‘We are targeting the first generation to have grown up after the Internet and mobile phone revolutions,’ Belanger said. ‘Eighty percent of our listeners have access to Internet and 90 percent own a cellular phone.” Rather than traditional-style radio broadcasting, he said, he wanted a conversation with French youth over Internet and SMS messages.’”
In the age of conversational media, that would indeed be a key conversation to watch.
(NOTE: I cross-posted this article from E-Media Tidbits)
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