Since the establishment of the health pass, and with the debate around the vaccination pass, violence against elected officials has multiplied. But journalists are also targeted. A team from Agence France-Presse was threatened with death and assaulted and one of the security guards protecting it injured in the head, Saturday, January 15, in Paris, during an anti-vaccination pass rally organized in particular by the movement The Patriots of Florian Philippot.
The team, made up of two image reporter journalists (JRI), was accompanied by two security agents to cover the rally from Place du Trocadéro, in the west of Paris. After the first shots were taken without incident, the situation became tense after the procession left at the Palais de Tokyo, when around 150 people arrived near the team.
A hooded man with a megaphone said: “It’s the AFP, fuck these sons of bitches!” recounts the attacked journalist. At this call, at least fifty people went to her to fight it out. The protection officers intervened, allowing the two JRIs to flee. The security guards were then beaten, in particular with truncheons, while they were protecting the journalist, who was overtaken by around twenty demonstrators.
Guards and reporters report receiving death threats before one of the security guards was hit in the head with a bottle, splitting his scalp open. The latter and the two journalists finally managed to reach a cordon of mobile gendarmerie and to take shelter behind the police. They had to stop covering the rally.
Some of the demonstrators were identified as far-right by AFP journalists. A reporter posted photos on Twitter showing protesters with outstretched arms, saying she had not taken these photos, but that they came from a Telegram discussion between far-right activists.
Paris, France. About 200 neo-Nazis, arms outstretched, in the middle of the street, at the heart of the anti-pass demonstration. Everything is fine. pic.twitter.com/0Z75iF1GBn
— daphne deschamps (@daphne_dsch) January 15, 2022
“In six years of protests, this is the first time I have seen such violence”, testified the journalist, shocked, in particular by the death threats. “The hooded man behind the movement grabbed me and said ‘I’m going to kill you, look at me, I’m going to kill you!'”, she says. “If she had fallen, she would have been beaten up”, adds his videographer colleague.
Agence France-Presse will file a complaint on Monday for “intentional violence in meetings”, “death threats” and “obstructing freedom of expression” after the attack on one of its teams during an anti- vaccine pass in Paris, announced its CEO Fabrice Fries. “AFP denounces the trivialization of attacks, verbal and now physical, against its teams and is concerned about the new level of violence reached.” An AFP team covering demonstrations against the health pass had already been attacked in July 2021. Two JRIs had been spat on and insulted during a demonstration organized by Florian Philippot.