JONATHAN TURLEY: France's free speech crackdown shows what happens when politicians define truth

French President Emmanuel Macron went full Orwell recently. While long the darling of Western media, Macron has been one of the most anti-free-speech leaders in the world. On Sept. 29, he declared that "The so-called American free speech today, which some people have promoted, is the opposite of free speech." Having Emmanuel Macron holding forth on free speech is akin to Joey Chestnut proselytizing on veganism.

has been in a headlong plunge into censorship and speech criminalization. These laws criminalize speech under vague standards referring to "inciting" or "intimidating" others based on race or religion.

For example, fashion designer John Galliano was found guilty in a French court on charges of making antisemitic comments in a Paris bar in 2010 and 2011.

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In another case, the father of French conservative presidential candidate Marine Le Pen was fined because he had called people from the Roma minority "smelly" in 2013. A French teenager was charged for criticizing Islam as a "religion of hate" in 2020.

Many of us were disgusted recently when Macron celebrated Brigitte Bardot's life as someone who "embodied a life of freedom." As I discussed, the French government repeatedly prosecuted Bardot for speaking about her views.

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Macrons praise for Bardots "life of freedom" is reminiscent of the reaction of French officials to the massacre of editors at Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine. After hounding the victims for years with criminal investigations, the French government organized a march for free speech. As predicted, it then used the killing by Islamic extremists to further crack down on free speech.

In my book "The Indispensable Right," I discuss how France has careened down the slippery slope of censorship for decades, and the desire to silence others has now become an insatiable appetite.

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Macron has supported figures like his anti-free-speech ally Thierry Breton in globalizing the reach of the infamous Digital Services Act (DSA) to curtail speech, including Americans and American companies.

In his latest pitch for censorship, Macron pulls out an old saw that if everyone can speak freely, no one can speak freely.

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Macron declared that: "There is no freedom if there is no limit to my freedom, which begins with the freedom of others and respect for a common framework. I know this when I walk down the street: my freedom cannot mean hitting you, in