The lower house of the French parliament approved a controversial new bill on security, presented by the party of President Emmanuel Macron. In Article 24, the most contested, a new offense is introduced for anyone who disseminates images capable of “damaging the physical and moral integrity” of police officers (sentences can reach up to one year in prison and the payment of a fine of 45 thousand euros). Critics argue that the law, which will still need Senate approval to take effect, will make it more difficult for journalists to report on violent or illegal police actions, with the risk of these actions becoming more frequent and widespread.
The law passed today is the latest of one 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 often used by protesters during protests, and gives more powers to local police officers.
Protests against the law escalated last week, when France’s Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, said journalists in charge of following a demonstration should notify authorities in advance to “avoid confusion” in case the police were forced to respond with violence.
To try to calm the criticism, Darmanin himself made it clear last Friday that newspapers and televisions could continue to show images of police officers without having to blur their faces, and added that only images accompanied by comments inciting violence would be evaluated in the light of the new law. Similar clarifications had also come from exponents of La République En Marche, Macron’s party, for example from parliamentarian Alice Thourot; and on Friday the government added an amendment to specify that the article “will not be an obstacle to the right to inform the public.”
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The new law has garnered a lot of support on the right, but at the same time angered the left, which accused Macron of wanting to meet the demands of the radical right ahead of the next presidential elections, which will be held in 2022.
Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist Party, he told The world that Macron is attacking liberalism, having presented himself as its main defender, and has accused it of governing in a “solitary and opaque” manner, 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 sufficient and that Article 24 should have been withdrawn in its entirety.
Next month, the French parliament will examine another bill wanted by Macron’s party, with the aim of countering what on October 2 the president had defined “Separatism”, a term he had been using for some time to indicate the fact 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 middle school teacher who had shown in class the caricatures of the prophet Mohammed, and a Tunisian citizen he had killed three people in a church in Nice.
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