To follow up on a post I made a month ago about legislation in France that would make it illegal to deny that the Armenian genocide took place. The French senate passed the bill and President Nicolas Sarkozy signed it into law, but today, the highest court in France struck it down. The Constitutional Council declared that the law was unconstitutional. Follow this link.
And unconstitutional it was. As I wrote in my previous blog, this law would've banned debate about the subject of the genocide and curbs the right to free expression. How is this any different than the restriction of speech in Turkey, where--on the flip-side--it's illegal to state that the genocide did happen?
Sarkozy and his party members in parliament have promised to reintroduce the bill, with a few tweaks to get them around the high court's decision. I'm not sure how such a law can be written without infringing on free speech abilities, but when you're trailing in the polls and desperate like Sarkozy to get whatever votes you can, you're willing to do anything.
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