April 22, 201016 yr French outrage over photo of man wiping his bottom on the tricolour flag By Peter Allen Last updated at 2:31 PM on 22nd April 2010 Comments (1) Add to My Stories The French government is demanding the prosecution of a man photographed wiping his bottom on the national flag. The prize-winning image has caused outrage in France despite being praised by judges officiating a competition organised by the Nice branch of media store FNAC. Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said ‘criminal proceedings should be launched against this unacceptable act'. Sacre bleu! The French government is demanding the prosecution of a man photographed wiping his bottom on the national flag She added: ‘Presumably the law can punish such an intolerable act against the French flag? If the existing law is not strong enough, then it should be revised.’ Taken on a public street in France, the photograph depicts a man from behind with his trousers around his ankles apparently using the French flag to wipe his bottom. Eric Ciotti, an MP from President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party, said: ‘The image is utterly offensive and should be removed. ‘I want the person who committed this outrage to be punished, and possibly those who published it too.’ Mr Ciotti said he has received complaints from French war veterans, as well as other members of the public who said the unnamed photographer should go to prison. But Nice prosecutor Eric de Mongolfier said he the image does not constitute an offence because it was produced in a ‘creative spirit’. The photograph was published in Metro, a free national newspaper, last month after a competition run by FNAC. The image won a special mention in the ‘politically incorrect’ category. Metro editor Frederic Vezard said: ‘It is a question of knowing what the limits of art, provocation and freedom of speech are.’ Insulting the French tricolour flag or the national anthem during a publicly organised event is punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of £7,000. A spokesman for FNAC said: ‘As soon as we saw that people were unhappy we withdrew it from the list of winners.’ In October 2008 Mr Sarkozy and his sports minister Roselyne Bachelot decreed that any football game in which the French anthem was booed would be ‘immediately stopped’. The dramatic move followed catcalls during a rendition of La Marseillaise during a football match between Tunisia and France in Paris. There were also incidents of the tricolour being burned by immigrants protesting against what they see as discrimination by the French state Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1268048/French-flag-wiping-photograph-sparks-outrage.html#ixzz0lqPEIpqg
April 22, 201016 yr I find that picture funny. It's just so... cliché! :lol: I would still laugh if it was a German flag. Damn I don't even care which flag it was, the picture itself is so primitive, it's hilarious! And common, it's just a flag, a piece of fabric.
April 22, 201016 yr The politians are wining about it but the french people don't care about all that fuss and we all find that pretty funny. So no drama just sthg the politics are trying to use to send a message... :dozey:
April 22, 201016 yr Author *note to self, pack French flag to use as loo-roll for glastonbury* Don't you already have a Southampton shirt for that purpose?:rolleyes:
April 22, 201016 yr Don't you already have a Southampton shirt for that purpose?:rolleyes: Have you seen the cost of shirts these days?
April 22, 201016 yr Author Have you seen the cost of shirts these days? What about one of last season's?:rolleyes:
April 22, 201016 yr Didn't your country's government just collapse?:stunned: YES ! They're all f*cking losers !:dozey:
April 22, 201016 yr Author YES ! They're all f*cking losers !:dozey: No different from the UK's then.:rolleyes:
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