Change of strategy for Gérald Darmanin. The Minister of the Interior, on the front of the media scene since Tuesday, November 17, 2020and the presentation of the draft law "comprehensive security" at the National Assembly, indicates this Thursday to AFP that he will propose to Matignon an amendment to the most controversial article of the text.
Among other proposals, as the one which foresees the creation of a municipal police in Paris for example, we find the article 24. It is precisely this article, whose purpose is to condemn the publications of images"of the face or any other element of identification" of a policeman or a gendarme in intervention since the diffusion has for goal to carry "attack with its physical or psychic integrity", which aroused the polemic. A demonstration gathered all its opponents on Tuesday, November 17, 2020 behind the National Assembly to protest against this law, considered liberticide and useless.
Faced with the anger of journalists, lawyers and left-wing activists, the Minister of the Interior is (somewhat) backing down. In concrete terms, the amendment provides for "specifying Article 24", in order to guarantee that"the freedom of the press is of course not threatened in any way" confirms the entourage of Gérald Darmanin to AFP. Some centrist deputies of the MoDem, members of the majority, did not hide their desire to purely and simply remove the controversial article.
Other sources close to the file confirm to AFP that "Darmanin has weighed not to delete Article 24, what some wanted to do. It is decided there is no deletion. The Minister's entourage confides that the amendment will focus on the addition of"the adverb 'manifestly' ('With the aim that it obviously affects his physical or psychological integrity'), in order to characterize the intention" to harm. There is little chance that this very slight correction will convince the journalists' unions and the opponents of the measure.
This article of the law is a serious attack on the freedom of expression and information, according to the Human Rights Defender, who published on November 5 a long text explaining the many liberticidal aspects of its application. The compulsory blurring of the police is no longer mentioned by the Minister of the Interior.
