After France’s parliament on Friday voted to approve a controversial law that will ban the publication of images of on-duty police officers as well as expand the use of surveillance drones and police powers, journalists’ groups, human rights activists and unions – including Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International’s French branch – organised protests in Paris and other French cities on Saturday, reports FRANCE 24.
Article 24 of France’s new security bill would make it a criminal offence for anyone to disseminate images that might “harm the physical or mental integrity” of police officers. People found guilty could be punished by a year in prison or a fine of up to €45,000.
Critics of the bill say it threatens to make it more difficult for journalists and others to report on police brutality or other infractions, with journalists’ groups, human rights activists and unions organising the protests in French cities.
Facing a backlash, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin tried to assuage public fears in comments to parliament on Friday. Journalists and members of the public can still “film and broadcast” images of police officers even “without blurring their faces”, he said. It is only when the images are shared with comments “intended to harm” or incite violence that they would fall afoul of the new law.
Media organisations had criticised Darmanin for telling a press conference on Wednesday that journalists covering protests or demonstrations should inform the authorities beforehand to “avoid confusion” if police are forced to respond to violence.
Alice Thourot, an MP for President Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche (LREM) party and the co-author of the controversial clause, also tried to quell concern.
“The bill will not jeopardise in any way the rights of journalists or ordinary citizens to inform the public,” Thourot told French daily Le Figaro, adding that it only “outlaws any calls for violence or reprisals against police officers on social media”.
MPs are scheduled to vote on the bill as a whole on Tuesday. It will then go to the Senate, France's upper house.
In response to claims that Article 24 would have unintended consequences on press freedom, the government added an amendment ahead of Friday’s vote specifying that the clause “will not be an obstacle to the right to inform the public”. The offence outlined by the text “will only target the dissemination of images clearly aimed at harming a police officer’s or soldier’s physical or psychological integrity”, the amendment reads.
But the article’s passage has raised eyebrows, coming as it does after a summer of mass public protests against police brutality and accusations of systemic racism.
Activists have alleged that police brutality was responsible for the killing of Adama Traoré, a Frenchman of Malian origin who died after his arrest in the Paris suburbs in 2016. An autopsy commissioned by his family said that he died of asphyxiation. The official health report released in June said he died of heart failure, clearing three police officers of responsibility.
Several instances of alleged police violence were revealed by videos broadcast on social media. Cédric Chouviat, a delivery driver in Paris, suffered a heart attack and died in January after police put him in a chokehold. Several Yellow Vest protesters were bludgeoned inside a Burger King in Paris in December 2018. Images of both incidents originally surfaced on social media, prompting public outrage.