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The lower house of the French parliament approved a controversial new bill on security, introduced by the party of President Emmanuel Macron. Article 24, the most controversial, introduces a new crime for anyone who disseminates images capable of “damaging the physical and moral integrity” of police officers (penalties can reach up to one year in prison and payment of 45 thousand euros penalty fee). Critics argue that the law, which will still need Senate approval to take effect, will make it difficult for journalists to report on violent or illegal police actions, with the risk that these actions will become more frequent and widespread.
The law passed today is the latest in a series of government initiatives launched in recent months with the aim of combating crime and terrorism. Among other things, it sets rules for the use of police drones, restricts the sale of fireworks that protesters often use during protests, and empowers local police officers.
Protests against the law intensified last week when French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said journalists in charge of following a demonstration should inform authorities in advance to “avoid confusion” in case the police were she was forced to respond with violence.
To try to calm criticism, Darmanin himself had clarified last Friday that newspapers and televisions could continue to show the images of the police officers without having to blur their faces, adding that only the images accompanied by comments that incite violence . it would be evaluated in light of the new law. Similar clarifications had also come from exponents of La République En Marche, Macron’s party, for example from MP Alice Thourot; and on Friday the government added an amendment to specify that the article “shall not be an obstacle to the right to inform the public.”
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The new law has garnered a lot of support from the right, but at the same time angered the left, which accused Macron of wanting to comply with the demands of the radical right ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, to be held in 2022.
Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist Party, told a The world that Macron allegedly attacks liberalism, presenting himself as its main defender, and has accused it of ruling in a “solitary and opaque” way, and of wanting to undermine the role of parliament, the press and the social partners. Amnesty International France has also spoken out against the law, arguing that the amendment approved on Friday is not enough and that Article 24 should have been withdrawn in its entirety.
Next month, the French parliament will examine another bill requested by Macron’s party, with the aim of countering what on October 2 the president had defined as “separatism”, a term that he had been using for some time to indicate that many members of the Muslim community would live in a “parallel society”, porous to Islamic fundamentalism and contrary to the secular values of France. After that speech, an Islamic extremist had beheaded a high school teacher who had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class, and a Tunisian citizen had killed three people in a church in Nice.
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