Field reporters covering protests against pension reform are the target of police violence.
These are scenes reminiscent of episodes of the Yellow Vests in 2019 and the violence against reporters who were filming the demonstrations. Christophe Deloire, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, on Friday challenged Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, asking him to put an end to police violence against journalists. The fact that these are spontaneous gatherings, after the major demonstrations against the pension reform for example, does not change anything: it is not because these gatherings have not been declared beforehand in the prefecture that they must be repressed. out of control and that one may seek to intimidate reporters.
RSF cites several cases of police attacks such as the arrest of Raphaël Kessler, a photojournalist with the Hans Lucas agency, who was kept in custody for 20 hours on the grounds that his employer certificate was not up to date. Or this photographer, Angeline Desdevises, who was tackled to the ground when she had her press card in evidence. Rémy Buisine, a Brut reporter who rose to prominence during the Nuit Debout movement, ” was assaulted twice by officers and prevented from doing his job “, tells us RSF. His colleague from Loopsider, Amar Taoualit, was targeted by a tear gas canister and threatened with a truncheon while he was wearing a press armband.
So of course, it is not a question of minimizing the violence of which the police are victims on the part of thugs or agitators who seek to provoke the repressive image of which we see, by definition, only part of the sequence. Especially since street reporters constantly accompany the processions and that rare are the police violence that escape the eye of the cameras. But the free coverage of demonstrations by journalists, with a press card or a standardized certificate, is recognized by the national law enforcement plan, adopted in December 2021. And the Delarue report, requested by Matignon, called it two years ago to guarantee the freedom to inform and the capture of images, “ whether it is the work of journalists or not “, he said.
Finally, there are the words. Judging by the strong police presence on the sets or through the speech of Gérald Darmanin saying on BFM TV that some demonstrators seek to “ kill police “, we have the impression that it is not only the thugs who blow on the embers, there is also, in a way, the first cop in France.
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