Two months after the start of the first demonstration against the "comprehensive security" law, demonstrations renewed today, Saturday, in a more intense and intense fashion in most French cities. Protesters and activists promised to continue their work until the law was dropped.
Demonstrations took place in several cities, including Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nimes, Rouen, Nantes and Châteauroux.
In the capital, despite the snowfall, thousands of demonstrators responded to the call of the coordination of human rights societies, which included about 60 trade unions, human rights organizations, associations, journalists' unions, producers, directors, owners of "yellow vests" and associations of "victims of police violence" and met in Felix Eboue Square, chanting slogans calling for freedom and denouncing violence The police calls for the withdrawal of the "comprehensive security" law, especially Article 24.
The snowfall did not prevent the demonstrations from continuing (Al-Jazeera)
Continuous protests and
since it came to light last November, the "comprehensive security" bill has met widespread condemnation by the journalistic profession and human rights organizations, which has caused chaos, clashes and large protests in the French street, as human rights defenders confirm.
This is why the French League for the Defense of Human Rights and the Council of Europe for Human Rights criticized him, as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michel Bachelet, who called earlier, according to media reports, for the withdrawal of this law and the withdrawal of Article 24 because of the danger it poses to journalistic work. And on freedom of expression.
Observers confirm this description of Article 24, which restricts freedom of photography and publishing, as it imposes a general prison sentence and a fine of 45,000 euros for anyone who publishes pictures of a "face or any identification mark" of a policeman or gendarme while performing his job, in order to "inflict physical or psychological harm on him." ".
This is the same description confirmed by the French Journalists Syndicate in its press release issued two days ago calling for the continuation of the march of protests to protect freedom that is in danger, according to the statement.
The press release affirmed that “Article 24 of the Comprehensive Security Law does not aim to protect police officers, but rather aims to protect police violence.”
He also added, "The government's security escalation does not end there. Because other provisions of the law aim to allow the state and the police to increase control over the population" Articles 21 and 22 "through random surveillance tools" drones and infantry cameras "that can be used in demonstrations or During identity checks.
A sign calling for the withdrawal of the "comprehensive security" law (Al Jazeera)
The views of the protesters
in Felix Eboue Square, a high school education teacher, Christine, told Al Jazeera Net, "Bad weather and snow will not prevent us from demonstrating and protesting against the Comprehensive Security Law that seeks to rob us of our freedoms and deprive us of images that document police violations."
"I am here not only for my sake, but for the sake of my children and future generations, who must have better educational and living conditions than the ones in which Emmanuel Macron's government is trying to surround us," she added.
As for the activist Didier, he stressed that he is demonstrating because the law of "comprehensive security", quarantine and curfews made him lose his job and become unemployed after he was working in the film production sector.
He also stressed that the right of the image is constitutional for the citizen, and the state cannot, with such "unjust" laws, mask the true image of the security forces' violations, nor can it prevent journalists and filmmakers from doing their work and portraying reality as it is without any distortion.
Didier added, "We are in the age of the image, and the state knows its role and danger, so it is keen to push for this law, but we are looking for such laws and attempts, and we will complete our protests until this law is completely withdrawn."
From the fountain in the square: comprehensive security means complete escape from punishment (Al-Jazeera)
The objection of the trade unions
. As for the Secretary General of the Syndicate of Journalists, Hakima Bin Amor, she told Al-Jazeera Net that the "Comprehensive Security" law and Article 24 of it in particular, not only pose a threat to the journalistic profession and freedom of expression in France, but also constitutes a threat to the right of the average citizen to the right information and the true and immediate image.
She stressed that the real danger is that this law stifles the journalistic work and enables the authorities and the police to prevent the journalist from doing his work, arrest him and keep it with his cameras, and thus he cannot do his work and photograph directly in the field.
Ben Ammour added that the Journalists' Syndicate, along with a group of other unions, had earlier counted more than 200 journalists, during the past two years, they had been subjected to police violence and prevented from carrying out their work by the police forces, and many complaints in this regard had been submitted to the European Council. For human rights.
She emphasized that the profession of journalism is getting more difficult day by day in France, because this law is neither the first nor the last in the system of restrictions on journalists, where the profession has lived for years in a kind of siege and a lot of attacks and violations.
The General Secretary of the Trade Union Union added that French journalists feel that the state and successive governments are targeting them, and freedom of expression in general.
And she added, "Because France is a country of human rights, any infringement of this freedom through such unfair laws is unacceptable and a shock to us. But we will remain in the squares and we will continue the struggle, demonstrations and protests until this law is completely repealed."
Ben Amor concluded her statement by saying that the journalist's real mission is to convey the news as it is and to transmit the image as it is, but the state wants to decorate this image and block it through the law whose sole aim is to prevent the documentation of police force crimes, of which we can enumerate many of them, such as the incident of citizen Cedric Chauvet and music producer Michel Zekler and Adama Traore, who would not have appeared without the photos and videos.