RePortersNoteBook.com: NOAM CHOMSKY supports the petition for the repeal of the Gayssot Act

Press Release from Prof. Jean Bricmont and Mr Paul-Éric Blanrue
(September 8, 2010)

NOAM CHOMSKY

supports the petition

for the repeal of the Gayssot Act

and the release from prison of Vincent Reynouard!

The petition demanding the repeal of the Gayssot Act and the release from prison of the revisionist Vincent Reynouard, launched on the Internet on August 6 at the initiative of the historian Paul-Eric Blanrue (http://abrogeonslaloigayssot.blogspot.com), has now received some noteworthy support indeed with the signature of the American linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky.

"I understand that Vincent Reynouard has been condemned and jailed under the Gayssot law, and that a petition is being circulated in protest against these actions," wrote the tireless defender of freedom of expression in a statement of September 5. Mr Chomsky had been in France last spring for a conference at the College de France and various other events.

"I know nothing about Mr. Reynouard, but regard the Gayssot law as entirely illegitimate, inconsistent with the basic principles of a free society as these have been understood since the Enlightenment," he added.

Noam Chomsky pointed out that "this law in effect grants the state the right to determine historical truth and to punish departure from its edicts, a principle reminiscent of the dark days of Stalinism and Nazism."

Mr Chomsky ended his statement by lending his support to French historian Blanrue's initiative: "Accordingly, I would like to register my support for the petition protesting the application of this law in this (or any) case".

Passed on July 13, 1990, the Gayssot Act forbids the "disputing (...) of the existence of one or more crimes against humanity as defined by Article 6 of the charter of the international military tribunal [known as that of Nuremberg], annexed to the London Agreement of 8 August 1945. "

In 2007 the revisionist Vincent Reynouard, father of eight children, was sentenced by a court in Saverne (Alsace) to a year in prison for having written a 16-page pamphlet entitled Holocauste ? Ce que l'on vous cache… (Holocaust? Here's what's being hidden from you…) The following year that sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeal in Colmar, which also imposed a fine and damages amounting to a total of 60,000 euros. Mr Reynouard is currently detained in the prison of Valenciennes.

Amongst the first of those to sign the petition, who, let us recall, do not, in so doing, support Vincent Reynouard's ideas but merely defend his right to express them, are:
Paul-Eric Blanrue, historian (France / Italy); Jean Bricmont, professor of physics at the Université Catholique of Brussels, essayist (Brussels); Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala, humorist (Paris); John Bastardi Daumont, barrister (Nice); Chris Laffaille, writer, journalist, former deputy editor of Paris Match (Paris); Albert Salon, doctor of letters, former ambassador ;Tristan Edern Vaquette, artist (Paris); Jean-Guy Allard, journalist, writer (Havana); Patrick Berger, doctor of physics, Université de Paris-Est-Créteil, president of the Circle Zététique (Paris); Marco Pietteur, editor (Belgium); Bruno Roy-Henry, historian, author of Napoleon: l'Enigme de l'Exumé de Sainte-Hélène (Paris); Gérard Lecha, sociologist and writer, columnist for Le Libertaire under the nickname "Père Chat" (Paris); Jean-Claude Manifacier, professor, Université des Sciences de Montpellier (France); Alain Marliac, honorary research director at the IRD, doctor of prehistory ; Max Cabantous, lecturer emeritus, Université de Montpellier III (France); Michel Bizouard, honorary professor at the Université de Bourgogne (Jambles, France); Laurent James, writer (Marseille); Rashid Shahin, writer and journalist (Bethlehem, Palestine); Hiyam Haddad, university lecturer (London); Géraldine Hilaire, actress (Chilly-Mazarin, France); Daniel McGowan, professor emeritus, Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Geneva, New York); Syed A R Zaidi, professor of philosophy (ret'd), University of Delhi (India); Dr Hamdy Abdo Elhinnawy, economist (Egypt); George Salzman, professor emeritus of theoretical physics, University of Massachusetts (Boston); Caroline Henaff, journalist (Paris);Diana Johnstone, journalist (Paris); Robyn Johannes, president of the Union of Atheists (Brussels); Marc Laudelout, director of the Bulletin Célinien (Belgium); Jean-Yves Le Gallou, former MEP, director of the Fondation Polémia (Paris); Franck Abed, writer, essayist (Val d'Oise, France); Patrice Authier, jazz pianist (Paris); Johan Livernet, journalist, author (Toulon, France); Koffi Cadjehoun, writer (Nancy),...

The full list of signatories, including to date over a thousand names, will be put online by the end of this year on the website http://abrogeonslaloigayssot.blogspot.com.
Signing will continue until then.