[RAP - THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND ARTISTIC CREATION]

[FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT - FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION - ARTISTIC CREATION - LIMITS]

🚨 Freedom of expression is strengthened in the field of artistic creation, but not unlimited.

(Versailles Court of Appeal, 18 February 2016, 15-02687)

⚖️The above-mentioned case concerned a rapper sanctioned for the lyrics of a song entitled ‘Suce ma bite pour la Saint-Valentin’ performed during a public concert on 13 May 2009 at the Bataclan in Paris. The singer performed eight songs containing a number of statements inciting hatred, violence and discrimination against women in general, including the following:

‘(...) chicks are whores. (...) (But shut the fuck up) or you're going to get married (...) I respect schnecks with a low IQ Those who take it until they end up physically handicapped (...)’.

The Versailles Court of Appeal began by pointing out that an insult means ‘any insulting expression, term of contempt or invective that does not contain the imputation of any fact’.

The Court then examined the disputed facts in the light of the enhanced freedom of expression applicable to artistic creation (Article 11 of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen; Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms). The Court specified that a judge does not have censorship powers ‘which would be exercised in the name of a necessarily subjective morality likely to prohibit modes of expression’.

The Court appreciates that an expression may constitute ‘the reflection of a living society’ and must therefore be interpreted in the light of the style of artistic creation in question. In this case, the lyrics came from a style of artistic creation known as ‘rap (...) a mode of expression that is by nature brutal, provocative, vulgar and even violent, since it is intended to reflect a disillusioned and rebellious generation’.

The Court therefore considered the mental element of the author: did the author want to insult women because of their sex and, on the other, provoke violence, hatred or discrimination against them? Do the comments in question express the unease of part of his generation faced with an ‘uncertain future, frustrations and social, sentimental and sexual loneliness’?

Taking the view that listening to the songs in their entirety, and not just the parts that were cut off, made it possible to detect a form of distancing and fictitiousness between the speech and its author, the latter was acquitted of the charges.

⚠ Although musician-artists enjoy greater freedom of expression, this is not systematic or automatic. In certain circumstances, rappers risk having their concerts suspended by administrative or court decisions.

Indeed, prefectoral decisions led to the suspension of the concerts of rapper Freeze Corleone in 2023 because of ‘anti-Semitic references aping Nazism’ in his songs. Several concerts planned in France were suspended or postponed in 2024, as a result of orders from the interim relief judge and decisions by the administrative court. Mr. Freeze's cases are now before the Conseil d'Etat.

#Artisticfreedom #Legaldebate #Rap #Freedomofexpression