Several billboards displaying messages opposing vaccination against Covid-19 were seen in Toulouse.
If the mayor condemns, the panels are incriminated and belong to the private domain, which blocks him in the process.
The prefecture of Haute-Garonne, the Secretary of State in charge of Citizenship as well as the Regional Health Agency have taken up the matter in order to put an end to these displays.
Some compare this campaign to a Planned Parenthood poster that shows a pregnant man, calling it equally outrageous.
“A cardiovascular accident for 100 injections: the health of our children is better than experimental vaccines.
“Here is the legible inscription on a large billboard in Toulouse since the beginning of August.
A message that clearly goes against the vaccination campaign against Covid-19, and which therefore surprised many residents.
On social networks, some are delighted that such information is also visible.
While others ask many questions: Where does this antivax campaign come from?
How was the display of this ad authorized?
Did the Toulouse elected officials really validate such a message?
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The billboard is signed by the "Independent Scientific Council".
And it is not a first attempt for this collective refractory to compulsory vaccination.
Other advertisements of this kind could be observed during the summer in Toulouse.
“Covid vaccination: 1 serious side effect in 100, what if it was your child?
“, could we read in July on a panel near the Canal du Midi.
As soon as the controversy had made noise, the town hall had announced condemned the content of the messages.
But she also said she couldn't do anything about it since the panels are in the private domain.
Private billboards
Indeed, the text of the law which regulates posting on the public highway goes in this direction.
The objective of the “Advertising, signs and pre-signs” chapter of the Environment Code is to ensure the protection of the living environment.
It is limited to the location of the location and the format of the advertisements, without mentioning the content of the messages broadcast.
Article L581-1 provides that “everyone has the right to express and disseminate information and ideas, whatever their nature, by means of advertising, signs and pre-signs, in accordance with the laws in force and subject to the provisions of this chapter”.
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If this is therefore in the private domain, the authorities have looked into the matter.
The prefecture of Haute-Garonne declared that it had taken up the case in the company of the Regional Health Agency of Occitanie and the Departmental Council of the Order of Physicians in the department.
It was then the Secretary of State in charge of Citizenship, Sonia Backes, who reacted.
“Alert to the anti-vaccination poster campaign underway in Toulouse, I asked the prefect to use the appropriate legal remedies to put an end to it,” the minister said on her Twitter account on Friday.
“A prohibition order will be taken, and a report sent to the Public Prosecutor”, she specifies.
To prosecute, the prefecture now relies on a completely different law to allow a condemnation of this kind of practice.
Article 27 of the law of July 29, 1881 on freedom of the press punishes with a fine of 45,000 euros "the publication and dissemination of false news", as specified by the prefecture.
The company Luchetta silkscreen painting, and the advertiser Reinfocovid are also targeted by a contradictory administrative procedure.
A prerequisite for a possible prefectural ban on the poster campaign according to the prefecture of Haute-Garonne.
A Comparison to Planned Parenthood Posters
Following the reactions of elected officials, who condemned these anti-vaccine messages, some Internet users wondered why the family planning campaign did not arouse the same indignation.
“At Planning, we know that men can also be pregnant”, can we read above the sketch representing a trans man expecting a child, alongside his spouse.
It is indeed a poster shared from August 18 by the one who describes himself as "Feminist movement and popular education".
Quite simply, this poster is not false information.
Nor can it impact the health of some, nor the health situation of the country, unlike anti-vaccination posters against Covid-19.
Family Planning has also responded to numerous threats, denouncing a “smear campaign on the backs of gender minorities”.
Its members fully intend to take the matter to court after consultation with their legal advisers.
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