(28 Nov 2020) Riot police moved in to disperse demonstrators in Paris on Saturday after thousands gathered to protest against a proposed security law that would restrict sharing images of police officers in France.
After a largely peaceful crowd had started leaving Bastille plaza, dozens of violent rioters clashed with the police, hurling bottles and rocks at them.
Police responded with tear gas and deployed a water cannon.
Dozens of rallies took place across the country against a provision of the law, Article 24, that would make it a crime to publish photos or video of on-duty police officers with the intent of harming their "physical or psychological integrity."
Anyone found guilty could be sentenced to up to a year in jail, and fined 45,000 euros ($53,000).
Civil liberties groups and journalists are concerned that the measure will stymie press freedoms and allow police brutality to go undiscovered and unpunished.
In Paris, several thousand people packed the sprawling Republique plaza and surrounding streets carrying red union flags, French tricolor flags and homemade signs denouncing police violence, demanding media freedom or calling for Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin's resignation.
Officers fired tear gas as scuffles broke out.
The crowd included journalists, journalism students, left-wing activists, migrants rights groups and citizens of varied political stripes expressing anger over what they perceive as a hardening police tactics in recent years, especially since France's yellow vest protest movement against economic hardship in 2018.
Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Friday that he would appoint a commission to redraft Article 24, but he backtracked after hearing from angry lawmakers.
The commission is now expected to make new proposals by early next year on the relationship between the media and police.
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