Journalism As A Social Movement

Michael Hedges December 2, 2020 - Follow on Twitter

News organizations and editorial unions are fed up seeing their employees and members roughed up, beaten and shot at by police agencies. It happens all the time, seemingly, because reporters assigned to cover civil assemblies witness unseemly and confrontational behavior. And these assemblies are taking place with increasing frequency and news coverage follows.

French journalists joined demonstrations in Paris weekend before last (November 28) protesting the proposed Global Security Law (loi sécurité globale) that, on top of everything else, criminalizes publication of images depicting police officers “with intent to harm.” Violations under Article 24 can result in a year in prison and a €45,000 fine. Mask-wearing journalists taking part carried photos of colleagues, sometimes bloodied.

After a “crisis meeting” last week PM Jean Castex introduced an “independent commission tasked with suggesting a rewrite of the Article 24,” reported France 24 (November 30). The crisis was two-fold: public uproar at Article 24 and political finger-pointing. There had been "a misunderstanding between the perception of the (Article 24) text, in particular by the media, and its reality,” he said. MPs of President Emmanuel Macron’s La République en marche political party (LREM) scoffed that he was trying to upend parliamentary prerogative. Then PM Castex backed down. There is, being France, a deeper political drama to all this. Presidential elections are coming in 2022.

There were “structural problems” with Article 24, said Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin at the meeting. He questioned police training, supervision and “policing the police.” But, he concluded, there is a need to keep “the protections included in Article 24 for the police.” The politicians promised to remove the “ambiguities” while kicking the process between the National Assembly and Senate. Suggestions include the “blurring” of faces of police officers in photos and requiring special accreditation of journalists in police districts (prefectures) in advance of public demonstrations.

While the hearing was taking place four police officers were indicted for beating in Paris a week earlier (November 21) of music producer Michel Zecler. The charges include "willful violence by a person holding public authority.” Video of the aggression toward M Zecler was shared on the video news portal Loopsider. It went viral.

Covering the demonstration against the global security law was award-winning photo journalist Ameer al-Halbi, a contributor to Polka Magazine and AFP. He was honored with second place in the 2017 World Press Photo awards for spot news. His winning photos captured the battlefield known as Syria. This past weekend, he was beaten in the face by a police officer. Aftermath photos have gone viral. "We are shocked by the injuries suffered by our colleague Ameer al-Halbi and condemn the unprovoked violence," AFP global news director Phil Chetwynd (November 30). An investigation has been opened.

“The problem is, the government is stuck following its promises to the police unions,” said National Union of Journalists (SNJ) secretary general Emmanuel Poupard, quoted by La Croix (December 2). “It is very difficult now to come back to it. We have the impression that what the executive has not managed to get through the door, he wants to get through the window.”

“This 'intent to harm', whatever it is, is a slippery measure,” said international journalism advocate Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) chief editor Pauline Adès-Mével to Euronews (December 2). “How can you figure out what a journalist will do with his pictures? So if a policeman stops a journalist from filming… he won't be able to continue his shooting, and it will have a chilling effect. That's one of the main things we fear, plus multiple arrests on the field for journalists.”

Several French media outlets have published a range of anecdotes from reporters enduring water cannon blasts, baton bruises and not-so-subtile threats. A photojournalist, reported Le Monde (November 28), recalled being recognized by a police officer and told “One day we’ll have your skin.” Le Monde director Jérome Fenoglio to France Inter (November 28), added that the proposed Article 24 text “unfortunately exposes the police to this suspicion of wanting impunity when they commit abuses and disrupt the functioning of democracy.” There’s that word again: impunity.

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