The public rapporteur of the Council of State recommended the rejection of the requests of 7 Down’s syndrome accusing the CSA of having prohibited the diffusion of a clip featuring them.
A video pleading in favor of the birth of children with Down syndrome sparked controversy in the summer of 2014. M6, Canal+, D8, all these channels had aired the pro-life clip “Dear future mother” between several advertising screens. On the occasion of the world day of trisomy 21, we could see several trisomics working to reassure future mothers of children with this chromosomal anomaly.
But according to a decision of the Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA), the video has no place in an advertising space.
At the end of July 2014, the authority had in fact judged that “this message does not come under advertising” and that it cannot be considered as “a message of general interest either”. Due to “its purpose (…) ambiguous”, the authority considered that it should no longer be broadcast. Except that the main concerned, the Down syndrome present on the screen, did not stop there.
The pro-lifers step up
Since last Wednesday, seven young people with Down syndrome have been participating in a public hearing before the Council of State. These seven applicants simply claim the cancellation of the CSA’s decision and the rebroadcast of this clip. They believe that the position of the latter is a matter of “censorship”, and flouts their right of expression.
“Why, because they are disabled, should they not be allowed to express themselves on television like all other citizens? », asks in The world Corinne Bebin, whose son Clément is one of the applicants.
It is supported by two other organizations that had participated in the financing of the awareness campaign. On the one hand, the association Les amis d’Eléonore, which brings together families of people with Down’s syndrome. On the other hand, the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation, involved in research on trisomy 21. It is also one of the main organizations of the pro-life movement, militant against abortion…
7 million views on YouTube
For the moment, the decision has been reserved. The public rapporteur of the Council of State, however, recommended the rejection of the requests filed. In comments reported by Agence France Presse (AFP), she felt that while the film is “very comforting (…) and gives a positive view of life”, it can also “reach” women who have chooses to abort. However, she admitted to having “hesitated for a long time” in her decision.
For her, if “the will is to weigh frontally on the choice of the future mother”, she does not say she is “convinced” that the film sought to “question the abortion”. She considers, moreover, that the CSA was “clumsy” in its arguments: “There is no more general interest in encouraging or interrupting a pregnancy”.
For the lawyer of the collective Les Amis d’Éléonore, Me François Sureau, “the mentally handicapped are victims of permanent discrimination, of jokes, and this campaign aims to remedy this, and nothing else. They do not comment on abortion, ”he slices. Always visible on Youtube, the video has already exceeded 7 million views (see below).
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