Paris (AFP)

Journalists Morgan Large and Nadiya Lazzouni, both threatened with death, will not have police protection, denounced in a joint statement on Wednesday the unions and organizations in the sector which had requested it.

The Ministry of the Interior "rejected the request for police protection" for these two journalists, affirm in a joint statement the International Federation of Journalism (IFJ), the European Federation of Journalism (EFJ), the National Union of Journalists (SNJ), the SNJ-CGT and the CFDT-Journalists and Reporters angry.

The six organizations had on April 13, in a letter addressed to the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin, called to protect Morgan Large and Nadiya Lazzouni, while the latter had already unsuccessfully requested close protection after being threatened with death.

"Attentive to your legitimate concerns, I would like to tell you that the assessments of the anti-terrorism services have concluded that there is no threat (T4) likely to justify the establishment of close protection," replied the ministry. of the Interior in a letter consulted by AFP.

Morgan Large, who regularly investigates the Breton agricultural community, lodged a complaint and requested close protection on April 13 after noting at the end of March that one of the rear wheels of his vehicle had been partially unbolted.

The facts triggered the opening of a judicial investigation at the end of April.

The Breton journalist had already been the subject of multiple intimidations - the intoxication of her dog, night calls or the degradation of the premises of her associative radio station RKB - since her testimony in the documentary "Brittany: a sacrificed land" broadcast mid-November on France 5.

Nadiya Lazzouni, who hosts the show "The Nadiya Lazzouni Show" relayed on social networks and the website of her media "Speak Up Channel", also lodged a complaint in mid-April for "death threats" because of religion after receiving a violently Islamophobic letter at his home.

A letter received after she had shared on her Twitter account a passage in an LCI program in 2019, in which she opposed the ban on the wearing of the veil to accompanying mothers during school trips.

These two cases gave rise to reports "on the platform to strengthen the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists of the Council of Europe" which "have not been the subject of any response from France. ", specified in their letter to the Ministry of the Interior the six organizations of journalists.

© 2021 AFP