Robert Sheridan
Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:02:28 -0800
*** The U.S. Supreme Court guaranteed the right to publish propaganda films just the other day... Citizens United; inaccuracy guaranteed. See NYT v. Sullivan upholding the dark side to protect the light.The presumption of innocence is a criminal law doctrine affecting the burden of proof in a criminal trial. Rare is the person presumed to be innocent at bail setting, time. Rarer still is the presumption of innocence for a person who was convicted, as the Jackal was. Some convicts may be innocent, but I doubt they any longer enjoy the presumption.
Great detective thriller, incidentally, "The Day of the Jackal," by Frederick Forsythe, if memory serves. rs Volokh, Eugene wrote:
Any thoughts on this case? The documentary would surely be protected – setting aside the possibility that includes knowingly false statements of fact – in the U.S., but I’m curious what the rules would be in France and elsewhere in Europe.Eugene http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/25/AR2010012503690.html?hpid=moreheadlinesLong before Osama bin Laden, Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, a.k.a. Carlos the Jackal, was the most famous terrorist of his era, bursting onto the scene with a spectacular hostage-taking of 11 OPEC oil ministers in 1975 and feeding his fame with more bloody attacks in the late 1970s and early 1980s. ...Ramírez ... has brought suit against a French production company shooting a documentary film on his life and legend, demanding a say on the final cut.Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, the lawyer representing Ramírez, said that Ramírez is demanding that the Film in Stock production company hand over a master copy of the documentary as soon as it is finished and grant him three months to review the content and impose changes. Anything else, she said in an interview Monday, would violate his intellectual property rights to his name and "biographical image."Coutant-Peyre, who is Ramírez's wife as well as his attorney, said the documentary, being shot for France's <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/france.html?nav=el> Canal Plus television network, would likely be a propaganda film unless she and her husband were granted a right to oversee its accuracy. She charged that statements by the producers indicate they plan to portray Ramírez as the instigator of terrorist attacks for which he has not been convicted, violating his right to presumption of innocence. ...------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Conlawprof@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/conlawprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
_______________________________________________ To post, send message to Conlawprof@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/conlawprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.