THE PRESS LAWS IN FRANCE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1714, 18 August 1879, Page 3

THE PRESS LAWS IN FRANCE.

A now Bill on the subject of the Press has been laid before the French Chamber of Deputies, and is intended to replace the innumerable laws on the Press and everything connected with it with which the French code is encumbered. The sub-committee has thoroughly revised all these laws, eliminating those which are considered unnecessary, and retaining those which it deemed worthy of preservation. To these it bus added certain innovations which it has thought requisite, thus forming an entire Bill composed of ocvor.ty-cne articles. The first article, which is, as it were, the preface to the law, sots forth the suppression of all the laws now in use. These seventy-one articles are divided into eight chapters, thus distributed: Chapter 1, printing office and library, contraven tions and penalties; chapter 2, on the periodical press; the 3rd treats of colportage ; 4th, public billstickors or criers ; sth, crimes, offences, and penalties ; Gib, jurisdiction; 7ih, procedure; Bth, prescription. The following are some of the principal dispositions of the Bill with regard to the periodical press: —Every journal or periodical may be published without any preliminary authorisation and without the deposit of any guarantee after it has been declared. The manager must be a French-

man of full age and in the enjoyment of bis civil and political rights. Before the publication of any Journal or periodical a declaration must bo made at the parquet of the Procurour of the Republic containing—(l) The title of the journal or periodical and the days on which it is to appear ; (2) the name and address of the proprietors ; (3) the namo and address of the agent ; (4) the address of the printing office. All offences against this article will be punished by a fine of from 50f to IOOOf, the proprietor, the manager, and the printer being held responsible. Two copies, signed by the manager, are to bo sent to the Prooureur of the Republic or the mayors, as the case may bo. No Journal or periodical can bo signed by a member of Parliament as manager. The managers of Journals containing condemned articles will bo regarded as the principal authors, and the authors themselves, whether they have appended their names or not, as accomplices. The proprietors arc civilly responsible for pecuniary condemnations pronounced against the managers or the authors of the articles. Journals or periodicals published abroad may circulate freely in Franco unless they are specially interdicted by the Government. If, in spite of the prohibition, they are surreptitiously introduced, sold, or distributed, the guilty parties will bo liable to a fine of from XOOf to 3000£.