"Global security": is article 24 an attack on the freedom to inform?

DECRYPTION

It is an article which does not pass.

Thousands of French people took to the streets in several French cities on Saturday after the adoption, the day before, of article 24 of the bill on "global security".

This article provides for criminal penalties in the event of malicious dissemination of images by law enforcement agencies.

Criticized, even with a modification, is this text an attack on the freedom to inform?

Guests from Europe Evening weekend to discuss it, the police commander and secretary general of the union of internal security executives (SCSI) Christophe Rouget, and the president of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Christophe Deloire, do not see in the same vein this article which is controversial. 

Protect the police

If he readily acknowledges that in a state of law the police can be filmed, Christophe Rouget sets himself up as a defender of article 24. Beyond a "total freedom of the press", the police commander points to the need to protect the police.

"Women and men who are sometimes the subject of threats on social networks, assaults and who are sometimes forced to move."

According to the secretary general of SCSI, "nothing in this article forbids filming the police, transmitting the videos to justice or broadcasting them".

On the other hand, repeating the new version of the article of the bill, he recalls that all these rights are no longer taken into account when there is a "manifest intention to harm the physical or mental integrity of a policeman".

A will that will have to determine a judge, he recalls.

"I do not believe in the justice of social networks which sometimes feed the police to the public with truncated videos."

An unnecessary Article 24? 

An analysis that Christophe Deloire, the president of Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) does not share.

Deploring the violence against the police "in the same way as the police violence", the journalist questions the very usefulness of article 24. "Why add an offense in the law of 1881 [on freedom of the press, editor's note] then that legal responses already exist in the event of threats or insults? "

According to the president of RSF, it is not before the courts that this text really poses a problem, but indeed on the ground.

Because, according to him, article 24 will "promote measures taken to prevent journalists from filming", he said, referring to the case of a journalist from France 3 who spent 12 hours in police custody during 'a previous demonstration against article 24. "What some police officers on the ground understood is that this law was the possibility for them to prevent people and journalists from filming."

A problem which is far from being new, since Christophe Deloire recalls that behaviors aimed at the same objective have already been observed. 

An upcoming meeting with Gérald Darmanin

For his part, Christophe Rouget retorts that many "interpretations" have been made on Article 24 and calls "to return to the text".

"Nothing is prohibited concerning the fact of filming the police officers", he insists.

"There is no question of undermining the freedom of the press, journalists can cover demonstrations," he insists, recalling that he is personally "republican". 

Arguments that do not seem to convince Christophe Deloire, who is due to meet Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Monday with "journalists' unions to demand the outright withdrawal" of Article 24.