The French Constitutional Council, responsible for verifying the compliance of laws with the French Constitution, declared article 19 of a digital law that aimed to punish “crimes against honor” as unconstitutional.
The Court’s decision, delivered last Friday (17)highlights the “importance of freedom of expression and communication”, considered an “essential condition for democracy and a guarantee of respect for other rights and freedoms”.
The law, known as the Security and Regulation of Digital Space Law (SREN, in its French acronym), was enacted this Friday (24), and, according to the French government, “represents a significant step in the protection of citizens, especially of minors, and of companies in the online environment”.
The law in question, which is intended to regulate the digital space in France, was partially accepted by the Court, but article 19 of it, which deals with “crimes against honor”, was blocked for imposing, according to the judges, “limits to freedom of expression that were not necessary, adapted and proportionate to the intended objective”. Specifically, the article provided for a penalty of one year in prison and a fine of 3,750 euros for “disseminating online content considered offensive to a person’s dignity or that creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive situation”.
Critics of the article argued that French legislation already has several existing criminal qualifications capable of repressing the acts that the article intended to punish, making it unnecessary. They also stated that it generated legal uncertainty, which could lead to “undue censorship and a restriction of freedom of expression”.
The Constitutional Court emphasized that, “although parliamentarians are permitted to institute infractions that repress abuses of freedom of expression that affect public order and the rights of third parties”, any “restriction on this freedom must be carefully balanced”.
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