SETBACK FOR MACRON AFTER MPS BACKTRACK ON CONTROVERSIAL SECURITY BILL

Tue 01 December 2020:

Facing protests of the measure, France’s Parliament on Monday decided to drop a controversial plank of a new security bill which would restrict the right to film or take pictures of police officers on duty.

Christophe Castaner, head of the ruling LREM Party, told a press conference that the article will be rewritten and a new version submitted to parliament soon.

France’s lower chamber already approved the whole bill last Tuesday.

“This is neither a withdrawal nor a suspension, it is a complete rewrite,” said Christophe Castaner, head of Emmanuel Macron’s La République en Marche group in the National Assembly, at a press conference Monday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, Castaner and the heads of two other majority groups met with the French president and others in the executive branch to discuss the contentious article and find a way out of the crisis.

Macron reportedly expressed dismay about his government being seen as illiberal after extensive coverage in domestic and international media highlighted the bill’s impact on fundamental freedoms.

Videos of violent police interventions last week, which triggered investigations and even the provisional detention of two policemen, made the article even harder to defend. Several lawmakers from LREM voted against the security bill.

Ongoing protests in France. pic.twitter.com/fmm21C7oZC

— The Bias News (@thebias_news) November 28, 2020

BREAKING: Violent protests and clashes still underway in France, wall of the Bank of France set on fire in Paris. pic.twitter.com/D5ut7LmdM9

— Wars on the Brink (@WOTB07) November 28, 2020

The drama around article 24 has overshadowed other proposed measures in the bill, with critics focusing on how the former could endanger press freedom and prevent citizens from reporting police wrongdoings.

Article 24 of the bill drew controversy for specifying a year in prison or a fine of €45,000 ($53,700) for disseminating “face images or any other identifying element of an officer belonging to the national police or the gendarmerie acting in the context of a policing operation… with the aim of causing harm to his or her physical or psychological integrity.”

Supporters of the bill argued that it would protect law enforcement, whose members are often subjected to harassment.

Free speech advocates said it would muzzle the free press and hobble efforts to rein in abuses by police.

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