Senators must debate the government bill on -

NICOLAS NICOLAS MESSYASZ / SIPA

  • Four months after the adoption of the bill on "global security" in the National Assembly, senators must in turn examine this text until March 18.

  • Among the planned provisions, article 24, which penalizes the malicious dissemination of images of police officers or gendarmes, has caused controversy and led to major demonstrations throughout France.

  • Entirely rewritten by senators in the Law Committee, this article remains strongly criticized.

The article had ignited the powder.

Debated in the Assembly last November in an explosive context, marked by the violent arrest of music producer Michel Zecler, the “global security” bill and its famous article 24 are back on the parliamentary agenda this week.

From Tuesday, and until March 18, senators must in turn examine this text.

Adopted on first reading by the deputies, article 24 aims to penalize the dissemination of "the image of the face or any other element of identification" of a police officer or a gendarme in intervention when this one has for " manifest goal ”of“ undermining his physical or mental integrity ”.

Blasted from all sides - from the Council of Europe to the Defender of Rights - and accused of representing an “attack on freedom”, Article 24 has been completely rewritten by the Senate Law Commission.

But will this new formulation be enough to put out the fire?

Creation of a new offense of "provocation of identification"

In the deputies' version, article 24 amended the 1881 law on freedom of the press to suppress the malicious dissemination of images of the police.

This provision sparked an outcry and gave birth to a protest movement organized by a "national coordination" made up of lawyers, NGOs defending public freedoms and journalists' unions.

Faced with the pressure and the decline of the majority which had conceded "a vagueness", the senators took charge of rewriting the article.

It's been done since March 3.

In the Laws Committee, the elected members of the Upper House abandoned any reference to the 1881 law and preferred to create a new offense of “provocation to identification” in the Penal Code.

This text, which must be examined as of today, now provides that "provocation" to "identify" a police officer or a gendarme, "with the obvious aim" of harming his physical or mental integrity. , "Is punished by five years imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros".

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the rapporteur Marc-Philippe Daubresse (LR) considers that this rewriting is "safer" from a legal point of view and in accordance with the Constitution, unlike the article previously written by the deputies, tackle-t -he.

“Our article 24 does not concern the dissemination of images of police operations.

Journalists will be able to film and broadcast whatever they want.

We have had our text appraised by lawyers and it in no way affects freedom of the press, ”he assures us.

A "cobbled together" and "presumptuous" law

An analysis that does not convince Anne-Sophie Simpere, advocacy officer at Amnesty International France: “This new wording of article 24 remains extremely vague and legally complex.

However, when a law is vague, there is a risk of abusive use.

"The very philosophy of the proposal drafted by the Senate also raises the question:" In the Penal Code, when one speaks of provocation, it is a provocation of an offense or of a negative act: provocation to hatred or provocation to suicide for example.

There, it is a provocation to the identification of the police.

It shouldn't be negative, ”she points out.

Finally, according to the advocate, "provisions already exist in the Penal Code - on online harassment for example - to protect the police in the event of exposure on social networks".

The debate in the hemicycle promises to be lively since hundreds of amendments have already been tabled by the various groups.

The elected socialists, ecologists and communists demand in particular the pure and simple deletion of this article 24.

Jérôme Durain, socialist senator from Saône-et-Loire defended the removal of this provision before the Law Commission.

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he explains: “We are not indifferent to the work carried out by the rapporteurs.

But during our hearings with defenders of public freedoms, magistrates, and lawyers, what we were told, on both sides, is that this article was useless.

The elected official, who has decided to maintain his deletion amendment for consideration in plenary session, denounces a "coup de com '" from the government and a "cobbled together, presumptuous and disturbing law".

Already mobilized for months, the national coordination called for a rally this Tuesday at 4 p.m. in front of the Senate.

She now calls for the total withdrawal of this law.

Not enough to scare Marc-Philippe Daubresse, who relies on the good sense of his colleagues: “The stage, after the examination in the Senate, is the joint committee to reach an agreement between the version of the deputies and senators.

If we delete section 24 as we drafted it, we run the risk of ending up with a blank page and seeing the members support their initial version, which, in my opinion, is really not good.

"

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