Dunya Miyatovich, OSCE representative for freedom, expressed concern about France passing the bill on prosecution for public misrecognition of the so-called Armenian Genocide, Trend reports.
She expressed confidence in the humane intentions of the French MPs supporting the bill, but passing such an initiative would cause serious disagreements on international standards of freedom of thought.
Miyatovich also noted that it would become a precedent for politically-interpreted special criminal prosecution for public debates. Criminalization of discussions of history, even for false and abusive statements on the national tragedy, would not contribute to mutual understanding between the people, societies and governments of OSCE member-states.
The official expressed fears that passing the bill would inspire other OSCE states to follow the French example and introduce their own criminal responsibility for statements concerning historical events, violating the principle of freedom of speech.
Prohibition of statements related to the cultures and histories of peoples and regions would make international standards of freedom of speech useless and subjugate them with many fragmentized national strategies for settling freedom of speech and expression.
Should the French Senate (the upper chamber of parliament) pass the bill on misrecognition of the Armenian Genocide, the new punishment would be imprisonment or a fine of 45,000 euros.
