The NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday called on Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin to "
put an end to police violence against journalists
" during demonstrations against the pension reform.
RSF asks "
to remind the police of their obligation to respect the rights of journalists and to protect them, in accordance with the provisions of the National Law Enforcement Scheme (SNMO)", urges Christophe Deloire, Secretary General
of the association, quoted in the press release.
The journalists covering these rallies were "
subject to numerous arbitrary arrests, attacks and intimidation by the police
", although they had all been "
clearly identified
" as press professionals, underlines in a press release press freedom NGO.
Among the “ most serious
” cases
cited by the association, those of two photojournalists from the “
Hans Lucas
” agency.
One, caught in a trap on March 20 in Paris and who had asserted his condition as a journalist, was held in police custody for 8 p.m. “
without prosecution and explanation
”.
The other photo-reporter, for her part, was "
pressed to the ground by two CRS
" in Rennes on March 16 when she was "
clearly identifiable thanks to her press card hung on her camera
" and had "
positioned so as not to interfere with the ongoing intervention of the police
".
Two days earlier, the same journalist had "been called a '
big whore
' when she had just told the policeman who was asking her to leave that she was a journalist," reports RSF.
Opening of eleven judicial investigations
The association also recounts several incidents during the demonstrations of March 21 in Paris, during which reporters, who were nevertheless isolated from the intervention of the police, "
found themselves on the ground after a charge
".
Journalist Rémy Buisine, of the online media "
Brut
", was "
twice attacked by agents, and prevented from doing his job
", according to RSF.
"
These various incidents go against
" the national law enforcement plan (SNMO), adopted in December 2021, adds the NGO, recalling that, according to it, the presence of journalists "is of paramount
importance
» and «
makes it possible to report the opinions and claims of the demonstrators (...) as well as the intervention of the public authorities and the forces of order
».
At the same time, Gérald Darmanin announced on Friday the opening of eleven judicial investigations into alleged police violence for a week as part of the mobilization against pension reform.