The Law on the Freedom of the Press of 29 July 1881 (french: Loi sur la liberté de la presse du 29 juillet 1881), often called the Press Law of 1881 or the Lisbonne Law after its rapporteur,

Eugène Lisbonne Eugene is a common male given name that comes from the Greek εὐγενής (''eugenēs''), "noble", literally "well-born", from εὖ (''eu''), "well" and γένος (''genos''), "race, stock, kin".France. It provides a legal framework for publications and regulates the display of advertisements on public roads. Although it has been amended several times since its enactment, it remains in force to the present day. It is often regarded as the foundational legal statement on

freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerci ...

and

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogn ...

in France, inspired by Article 11 of the

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789, links=no), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolu ...

of 26 August 1789. At the same time, the law imposes legal obligations on publishers and criminalises certain specific behaviours (called "press offences"), particularly concerning

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defin ...

History

The Press Law was passed under the

French Third Republic The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 194 ...

in 1881 by the then-dominant

Opportunist Republicans The Moderates or Moderate Republicans (french: Républicains modérés), pejoratively labeled Opportunist Republicans (), was a French political group active in the late 19th century during the Third French Republic. The leaders of the group inc ...

who sought to liberalise the press and promote free public discussion. The new law swept away a swathe of earlier statutes, stating at the outset the principle that "Printing and publication are free". Prior to 1881, French law had a complex and unclear set of laws that regulated public commentary. Slander was regulated by a thicket of

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

that had grown during the century, and numerous laws had been enacted to regulate the press and public censorship at various points during the republican and monarchist regimes of the 19th century. In total, 42 different laws containing 325 separate clauses regulating the press were in force, having been passed over a period of 75 years by ten different governments.Raymond Kuhn, ''The Media in France'', pp. 47-49. Routledge, 1994. Slander against public officials attacked in their public functions was criminalised under a law of 1819, but by 1880 the distinction between private and public affronts had become far from clear.Robert A. Nye, ''Masculinity and Male Codes of Honor in Modern France'', pp. 175-176. Oxford University Press, 1993. The free exercise of published speech was further limited by onerous requirements to obtain prior authorisation from the government and deposit a sum of "caution money".

Key principles

In place of the confusing mass of legislation that preceded it, the Press Law established a number of basic principles. Publishing was liberalised, with the law requiring only that publishers present their names to the authorities and deposit two copies of every work. The authorities were denied the power to suppress newspapers and the offence of ''délits d'opinion'' (crimes of opinion, or types of prohibited speech) was abolished. This had previously enabled prosecutions of critics of the government, monarchy and church, or of those who argued for controversial ideas on property rights. The scope of libel was severely reduced, with the criteria for defamation being much more tightly defined. A limited number of "press offences" was retained, including outraging public morals, and insulting high-ranking public officials including the President of the Republic, heads of foreign states and ambassadors. The law also provided a right of reply for persons to respond to articles in which they were featured. In addition, the law regulates advertising and permits property owners to forbid the posting of advertisements on their properties. References to the law are frequently seen on French walls where signs proclaim ''"Defense d'afficher - loi du 29 Juillet 1881"'' ("posters forbidden - law of 29 July 1881").Quoted in Martin S. Alexander, Helen Graham, ''The French and Spanish Popular Fronts: Comparative Perspectives'', p. 263.

Defamation

One of the most important reforms instituted by the Press Law was a major reduction in the previously extensive range of activities deemed libelous. Libel is defined concisely as "any allegation or imputation of fact striking a blow at the honour or the consideration of a person or a body to which that fact is imputed." It is generally possible to defend oneself from a libel accusation by demonstrating that the libelous facts are true, though this is not accepted in all cases. An insult (''injures'') is defined as "an outrageous express, terms of despise or invectives that do not charge any fact to the insulted person."Isabelle Renard & Marie Amélie Barberis in Spindler & Börner, ''E-commerce law in Europe and the USA'', pp. 130. Springer, 2002. As originally enacted, the law distinguished between levels of offence and between public officials and private citizens. Defamation of private citizens was treated far less seriously than that of injuring public officials; defaming a man in his public capacity could be punished by a year's imprisonment and a fine of 3,000

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th cen ...

s, while injuring a private citizen could cost as little as 18 francs or six days in prison. Any statement made in parliament, judicial tribunals or (by implication) administrative councils was exempted from punishment, thereby immunising public officials from liability for slandering colleagues. The law also included differing requirements for protecting public and private individuals. Courts were required to determine the truth of slanderous accusations against public officials, but where private citizens were the victims of slander the law directed magistrates to assess only the degree of offence contained in the slander, specifically forbidding investigation into the truth of the charges. The intention of the legislators was essentially to protect the personal privacy of the accused party.

Scope and defences

As enacted, the Press Law's scope was defined as covering "the press, printing, book sales, periodical press, posters, retailing, street sales, crimes, offences, prosecutions, punishment, and temporary provisions." It applies to statements made publicly, whether through oral or printed means.Dominique Mondoloni, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, "France", in Charles Glasser, ''International Libel and Privacy Handbook: A Global Reference for Journalists'', pp. 221-232. Bloomberg Press, 2006. In recent years, French courts have repeatedly ruled that the law also applies to defamatory content communicated via the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

. The law provides a number of defences, particularly when reporting on matters of public interest or concern. Truth of the defamatory statement is available as a defence in most libel cases other than those concerning the privacy of the plaintiff. Where privacy is infringed, truth is ''not'' an absolute defence, though some latitude is permitted if the plaintiff is a public figure. A plea of good faith is permitted by the courts in circumstances where the issues at stake concern matters of public interest. A defendant may be acquitted on that basis if the court is satisfied that the defendant has carried out at least a basic verification of the source of the information on which the defamatory statement is based.

Amendments

Some of the more liberal aspects of the 1881 law were overturned in 1944 following the

Liberation of France The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance. Nazi Germany inva ...

, when new restrictions were introduced on press ownership (with the intention of preventing the concentration of ownership) and greater transparency was introduced in a newspaper's finances and direction. Racially defamatory comments and incitement to racial hatred were criminalised when the law was amended first by the Marchandeau Decree of 1939 (repealed in 1940 by the Vichy government, reinstated in 1944), then by the Pleven Law of 1 July 1972. The French parliament further amended the Press Law in 2004 to make it a crime to discriminate against or defame individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation. Such offences are punished by jail terms of between six months and a year and a fine of between €22,500 and €45,000.

Effects of the law

The passage of the law had an immediate effect, promoting a rapid expansion in the size and range of the French mass media. In 1872, 3,800 periodical publications were published in France; a decade later, aided by the freedoms granted in 1881, that figure had expanded to 6,000. The citizens of Paris found their choice of newspapers expanding from 23 in 1881 to 60 by 1899. By 1914, a total of 309 daily newspapers were being published in France, with four of those dailies - '' Le Petit Journal'', ''

Le Petit Parisien ''Le Petit Parisien'' was a prominent French newspaper during the French Third Republic. It was published between 1876 and 1944, and its circulation was over two million after the First World War. Publishing Despite its name, the paper was circu ...

'', ''

Le Journal ''Le Journal'' (The Journal) was a Paris daily newspaper published from 1892 to 1944 in a small, four-page format. Background It was founded and edited by Fernand Arthur Pierre Xau until 1899. It was bought and managed by the family of Henri ...

'' and '' Le Matin'' - selling a million copies every day.Nicholas Hewitt, ''The Cambridge Companion to Modern French Culture'', p. 91. Cambridge University Press, 2003. The liberalisation of the law of defamation had a less positive effect, enabling an upsurge in personal innuendo and vague allegations. The sociologist

Gabriel Tarde Gabriel Tarde (; in full Jean-Gabriel De Tarde; 12 March 1843 – 13 May 1904) was a French sociologist, criminologist and social psychologist who conceived sociology as based on small psychological interactions among individuals (much as i ...

commented that "Pornography and slander have become the life-blood of the newspaper." French readers were treated to a daily diet of rumour, speculation and character assassination presented as "echos" and "faits divers". The French press became increasingly dominated by sensationalist and even malicious reporting as it abused the freedoms granted by the 1881 law to "slander and incite to violence with almost total impunity." The writer

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

personified the mixed benefits of the freedom granted by the law. It enabled him to publish his famous denunciation

J'accuse "''J'Accuse...!''" (; "I Accuse...!") is an open letter that was published on 13 January 1898 in the newspaper ''L'Aurore'' by Émile Zola in response to the Dreyfus affair. Zola addressed President of France Félix Faure and accused his Govern ...

in the newspaper ''

L'Aurore ''L’Aurore'' (; ) was a literary, liberal, and socialist newspaper published in Paris, France, from 1897 to 1914. Its most famous headline was Émile Zola's '' J'Accuse...!'' leading into his article on the Dreyfus Affair. The newspaper was ...

'' in 1898, something that would have been forbidden 20 years previously, but the torrent of lurid newspaper accusations against the unjustly imprisoned

Alfred Dreyfus Alfred Dreyfus ( , also , ; 9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most polarizing political dramas in modern French history. ...

led Zola to denounce the press as being :"a gutter press in heat, making its money out of pathological curiosity, perverting the masses ... higher up on the scale the popular newspapers, selling for a '' sou'' ... inspire atrocious passions ...

s well as S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. Histor ...

the higher so-called serious and honest press ... recording all with scrupulous care, whether it be true or false."Émile Zola, "Procès-verbal", published in ''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of rec ...

'', 1897. Quoted by Brian Winston, ''Messages: Free Expression, Media and the West from Gutenberg to Google'', p. 133. Routledge, 2005. The excessive liberalisation of the French press is held by some to have contributed to the "decadence" that crippled the Third Republic in the 1930s. Raymond Kuhn suggests that towards the end of the Third Republic in the late 1930s, abuses of the Press Law's freedoms "contribute to the destabilisation of the political system when economic crisis and political scandal rocked the regime."

References

{{reflist

External links

Text of the law
(in French) 1881 in law Freedom of expression law Freedom of the press in France French Third Republic Law of France