The French parliament has scrapped a controversial bill that makes the identifiable portrayal of police officers a criminal offense. A spokesman for the party of French President Emmanuel Macron announced this on Monday. The security law has caused quite a stir in France in recent weeks.
“We are going to completely rewrite the law and a new version will then be tabled,” Christophe Castaner, LaREM party leader in parliament, said at a press conference.
Earlier this month, the French government passed the new security law, making it a criminal offense to distribute images of police officers in France unless their faces are obscured. The bill states that no images of officers may be distributed that could endanger the “physical or mental integrity” of the officers.
Human rights organizations see the bill as a means to restrict freedom of the press and to make an investigation into possible abuse of power by the police impossible. Violators of the law could face a year in prison and a fine of EUR 45,000.
Fuss increased after the leakage of surveillance images
In protest, tens of thousands of people in various French cities have protested against the security law in recent weeks.
Fuss over the bill intensified last week, after surveillance footage came out showing a 41-year-old black music producer being beaten up by agents in his Paris studio. The musician, Michel Zecler, said he was being treated racially. The four agents involved were charged on the night from Sunday to Monday, a source involved in the investigation told the French news agency AFP.
The incident bolstered the protests. According to the French Ministry of the Interior, 133,000 demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday, 46,000 of them in Paris.
French agents collide with protesters
Groups of protesters clashed with French security forces on Saturday. Masked protesters erected barricades and threw fireworks and stones at the police. Officers deploy tear gas and flash grenades.
During the disturbances several cars, a motorcycle and building materials were set on fire. Demonstrators and the police clashed.
According to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, more than eighty people have been arrested and about 100 officers were injured in the demonstrations.
– .
