The Wall St. Journal reports that the French media is censoring it’s coverage of the riots to “avoid inciting further violence.”
The state-owned television channels, France 2 and France 3, have stopped reporting on the number of cars torched by rioting young immigrants every night. “Do we have to exercise self-censorship, to exercise censorship? Must we show everything, explain everything? Those are the [questions] that we’ve faced” throughout the rioting, said Paul Nahon, the deputy director general for news at France 3….
Explaining their restraint, TV execs say that they want to avoid inciting further violence.
Ed Lasky responds that French TV wasn’t so restrained in the way it handled it’s Mohammad Dura footage.
The French media released a story of doubtful validity and honesty which served as the ignition for various homicide bombs with scant regard for the consequences. Now, in the face of nationwide protests in France itself, they choose to exercise discretion (i.e., censorship) by refusing to broadcasts reports of the worst excesses during the riots because they are concerned it might inflame people.
In a nutshell, here’s what French TV doesn’t want viewers to see:
And here’s what they want viewers to see:
