Twenty organizations, including the League of Human Rights, called for a rally in front of the prefecture of Dijon on Tuesday evening. Their objective: “to defend the freedom to inform”. “Clearly, it is not only journalists, photo reporters, image reporters, documentary filmmakers, members of citizen observatories who are targeted, but also anyone, who with his mobile phone will take photos, especially during demonstrations or social movements “, denounced the organizers in a press release.
About 500 people were present at 6.30 p.m. in front of the prefecture, where speeches were scheduled. After taking the direction of Place de la République, the demonstrators went up Boulevard De Brosses, on the tram tracks, shortly after 7 p.m. The police then issued the first summons while the slogan “Everyone hates the police” resounded. The first tear gas was fired shortly after, while the rue de la Préfecture was blocked.
The demonstration ended shortly before 7:30 p.m. The prefecture indicated on Twitter that the firefighters had to intervene for trash fires and that 15 people were arrested “for participating in a gathering after summons in the rue du Havre sector “.
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The context
Article 24, adopted on Friday, is a controversial part of the Comprehensive Security Act. To “protect those who protect us”, thrown “in the pasture on social networks”, the majority wants to penalize one year of imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros for the dissemination of “the image of the face or any other element identification “of members of the security forces in intervention, when it” affects “their” physical or mental integrity “. If the measure is acclaimed by the police unions, it arouses an outcry on the left and among the defenders of public freedoms who saw in it “a disproportionate attack” on the freedom to inform and the sign of an authoritarian drift.
The National Assembly has given the green light
This Tuesday, in front of the deputies, the Prime Minister Jean Castex assured “that it has never been, that it is not, that it will not be in the intentions of the government to never wear anything that or an attack on the freedom of the press, on the freedom of expression “.
In the afternoon, the deputies adopted the bill by 388 votes against 104 (and 66 abstentions).
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