The Fight for Free Speech

Jan. 15, 2015

France cracks down on hate speech as Charlie Hebdo hits newstands France ordered prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and those glorifying terrorism Wednesday as the "survivor issue" of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo sold out in newsstands across the country. + French authorities arrested notorious anti-Semetic comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala for being an "apologist of terrorism," the Guardian reports, along with 53 others. + Mic's Jordan Valinsky: "Just a few days after millions of activists and dozens of world leaders banded together in defense of free speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, French authorities are already redefining how 'free' free speech actually is." + Twitter users are already pushing back against France's hypocrisy on free speech with the hashtag #JeSuisDieudonne. + Meanwhile, an al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the brutal attack that left 12 dead last week. + Politicians in the U.S. and Europe are already using the Charlie Hebdo massacre to push for more domestic surveillance of innocent citizens. Mexican mayor charged in disappearance of 43 missing students The former mayor of the Mexican city of Iguala has been charged with the kidnapping of 43 students feared murdered last year, a step toward justice in the highly publicized case that sparked violent demonstrations across the country last year. + Tomas Zeron, director of criminal investigations at the federal attorney general's office, told Reuters that prosecutors had obtained an arrest warrant for former Mayor José Luis Abarca and 44 others on charges of kidnapping the students. + Abarca's wife, María de los Angeles Pineda, was "jailed indefinitely" last week on charges that she and Abarca masterminded the abductions, Al-Jazeera reported last week. + "Since the students disappeared in September, 19 mass graves in the area have been uncovered and over 26,000 people remain missing," Mic's Becca Stanek wrote after Pineda's arrest. "Mexico's war on drugs has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives since 2006, which marks the launch the government's campaign against narcotics traffickers. But the students' disappearance signals that, in spite of the reform efforts that have been made, change has largely failed." The House of Representatives wants to torpedo President Obama's immigration plan House Republicans drew a hard line against President Barack Obama's executive immigration initiatives on Wednesday, voting to block them as they passed a Department of Homeland Security spending bill.   The vote sets up a potential showdown in coming weeks over funding for the sprawling agency that secures U.S. borders, airports and coastal waters. The bill's immigration provisions also could hamper Republicans' efforts to boost their appeal among Hispanic voters in the 2016 presidential election.

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