The French anti-racism group J’Accuse has failed in a bid to force ISPs to prevent French internet users from accessing the US based Front14.org portal. It had initiated court action against 13 French ISPs including France Telecom and AOL France in an attempt to block the portal, which describes itself as “on-line hate at its best” and gives access to more than 300 web sites.

The High Court's Judge Jean-Jacques Gomez rejected the argument put forward by J’Accuse, which was based on the need to protect morality, on the grounds that the court should only act against specific French sites rather than a portal. He accepted the argument put forward by the ISPs that the illicit nature of each site ought to be established individually before a decision is taken as to whether they ought to be blocked.

Gomez has requested a more detailed list of offensive web sites accessible through the portal that appear to contravene French anti-racism laws. This list is expected to be presented before the court in early September.

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