France made the wrong decision when it banned controversial comedian Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala, known for appallingly and insultingly mocking the Holocaust, from performing a number of his stand-up shows.
As a descendant of victims of the Holocaust, whose family members include both Jews and Muslims, I find Dieudonné’s comments deeply offensive. But banning his shows is the wrong answer. And it is a breach of freedom of expression.
The government’s representative in Nantes banned a show scheduled for Thursday, on grounds of threats to public order. On the day of the show, one of the city’s courts overturned the ban. But Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls, who has spoken out openly and strongly against Dieudonné, appealed to France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat, which later in the day upheld the ban.
On Friday, another court upheld the ban on another show by Dieudonné that was to take place in Tours in the evening. Welcoming the ruling by the Conseil d’Etat, Valls said that “The Republic has won”.
Yet a country’s dedication to human rights and democratic values is measured in the way it treats those with whom it disagrees, and in this instance, France has failed that test. France should respect freedom of expression, including those opinions that shock, offend, or disturb – unless they amount to inciting violence. Any restrictions to this freedom must be necessary and proportionate, and banning Dieudonné shows is neither. If there are indeed threats to public order, authorities should deploy enough police officers to deter violence, not ban the show altogether.
With more Dieudonné shows and rulings ahead, the French government should stop fighting the comedian like this – it only gives him the oxygen of publicity he desires. Instead, the government should focus on combatting incitement to violence when it occurs. It should also educate the people attracted to Dieudonné’s hateful message about the reality of the Holocaust and the dangers of dehumanizing others.
When France becomes a country in which anti-Semites and racists have no fans, only then will the Republic truly have won.
