Paris (AFP)

RSF lodged a complaint on Friday alongside 13 journalists who considered themselves victims of police violence during the "yellow vests" demonstrations, the NGO announced.

RSF has filed a complaint with the Paris public prosecutor's office for "willful violence and damage to property committed by persons responsible for public authority," the NGO said in a statement.

In La Rochelle, photographer Xavier Léoty had his knee fractured following an LBD shot on January 12, 2019. In Rennes, photographer Jean-Claude Moschetti had received a tear gas canister impact to the eye, causing loss of vision partial for several days.

Most of these journalists declare that they were deliberately targeted, like the photographer Adrien Lévy-Cariès, clubbed on December 1, 2018 in a restaurant near the Arc de Triomphe.

Carine Schmitt, Frédéric Scheiber (Hans Lucas agency), Pierre Angelergues (Konbini) and Lucas Léger (RT) are also among the complainants.

"We are filing a complaint today so that this violence is punished and the perpetrators condemned," said Christophe Deloire, secretary general of RSF, "but also to encourage the public authorities to thoroughly review the management of law enforcement in social movements, so that journalists are no longer targeted by certain officials responsible for maintaining order. "

RSF had counted at least 54 cases of journalists injured during the first six months of the demonstrations alone, including 12 seriously by the police.

"Journalists and photojournalists have been raped or injured in the exercise of their functions, but the judiciary does not seem to be upset. This is unacceptable," added lawyer Emmanuel Daoud, who represents the thirteen journalists and RSF.

More than 350 media and field journalists had denounced in May a forum of "multiple state violence" and asked the government to take "the measures necessary so that the police force stop" harassing them and the let work "freely".

Emmanuel Macron then promised that "actions" would be taken to punish deliberate police violence against journalists during this movement.

But again on December 5, in a Parisian procession against the pension reform, the Turkish journalist Mustafa Yalcin had been seriously injured in the eye by a de-encirclement grenade.

© 2019 AFP