France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence

I was in France years ago. It's a nice place that gets too much of a bad rap: I found the people to be quite friendly (and the food there is delicious). But when they screw up... maaaaan can they do it bigtime. The French government has made it illegal for anyone other than "professional journalists" to video or otherwise document acts of violence.

First of all, what the hell is a "professional journalist"? Journalism isn't something you're supposed to have a license to practice. You don't even need a formal education to be one. Just go out and find stuff and then share what you got with others. It can be either something you do full-time for pay or something you simply do for the love and passion of it (which is what I'm doing presently).

Smells about time that them French peoples have another revolution, if they're letting stuff like this happen. But then I remember that the U.S. Congress has recently attempted to force bloggers in this country to register as "lobbyists" with the federal government.

Someone explain to me again how it is that we're supposed to be better than the old hard-line Soviets.