Despite the ban on the gathering, at least 2,000 people gathered in Paris. Journalists say they were beaten while documenting the arrests of participants.
“I left the emergency room, sprained wrist after this blow”reports on Twitter Pierre Tremblay, journalist at HuffPost. The reporter participated, Saturday, July 8, in the rally in Paris in memory of Adama Traoré, during which several journalists denounced violence on the part of the forces of the order. Despite the authorities banning the event, at least 2,000 people gathered in the capital.
After the requests for dispersal and some verbalizations noted by AFP, the demonstrators left in procession, calmly, before Assa Traoré, the sister of Adama Traoré, asked them to disperse “without violence”. Two people were then arrested, including Youssouf Traoré, one of Assa Traoré’s brothers. His muscular arrest was filmed by several witnesses: we see him in particular resisting then being tackled and held face to the ground by several police officers.
“I ended up on the ground”
Several journalists have denounced on social networks, with supporting images, having been violently repelled by the police while covering these arrests. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was moved by a “unacceptable violation of the freedom to inform”.
The fatigue of the police in no way excuses this repeated violence against journalists. You don’t put your nerves on reporters (and no longer on demonstrators). A call to order is imperative for the National Law Enforcement Scheme (SNMO) to be applied. https://t.co/zrmcMmBQHl
— Christophe Deloire (@cdeloire) July 8, 2023
“We were several journalists filming an arrest of a member of the La Verite collective for Adama when the Brav-M knocked us to the ground”wrote the independent journalist Clément Lanot on Twitter. “I ended up on the ground, without understanding what was going on. My colleagues told me ‘you have a bump'”, he said on BFM TV.
“A group of Brav-M police officers are trying to talk to this brother, and all of a sudden there is tension. They are trying to question him, in the process he loses his shoes. We journalists, we are 2- 3 meters apart. With my colleagues, we get ahead of the path of the police so as not to bother them, and my colleague Florian Poitout ends up on the ground, thrown. We were really at a distance, we weren’t in the way.”he argues. “I try to pick him up and I also end up on the ground, thrown, without understanding what was going on, when there were several identifiable journalists.”
HuffPost journalist Pierre Tremblay says he received a violent shield from a member of the Brav-M and found himself on the ground. “Journalists should be able to cover such events, and report on the behavior of the authorities, without fear of being beaten up by the police,” defended the editorial director of HuffPost.
I come out of the emergency room. Sprained wrist (3 weeks immobilization) after this blow. #AdamaTraore #BravM https://t.co/PGdtpzimYb
— Pierre Tremblay (@tremblay_p) July 8, 2023
Florian Poitout, press photographer for Abaca Press, has indicated that he will seize the IGPN following the violence received and the deterioration of his equipment. “I was thrown to the ground and beaten by BRAVM police officers (…) one of them grabbed my camera and threw it on the ground, which damaged it. Nothing justifies this expression of violence”, he wrote on Twitter.