Macron accused of double standards over attempt to curb press freedom

PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron faced accusations of double standards yesterday as he launched plans for a government crackdown on press freedoms in France while styling himself as a paragon of free expression abroad.

After the beheading last month of Samuel Paty, a teacher who showed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed to students, Mr Macron said that defending free expression was an essential French value. “I will always defend in my country the freedom to speak, to write, to think, to draw,” he told Al Jazeera at the time.

Yet French journalists and rights advocates are up in arms over a new security law they say restricts their freedom to report by imposing a quasi-ban on filming or releasing footage of police.

Under the global security bill debated in parliament this week, offenders face up to €45,000 (£40,000) and a one-year prison term for “disseminating by any means or medium whatsoever … the image of the face or any other identifying element of an officer … when engaged in a police operation”.

The government insisted the clause would “protect those who protect us”, but critics warned the legislation risked curbing press freedoms and muzzling attempts to show police brutality.

On Tuesday, police arrested a journalist from France 3, a regional TV channel, during a protest against the law outside the National Assembly. He was detained for filming the demonstration, even though he had shown officers his media credentials, according to a statement from the channel’s director.

Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, said the journalist had not informed the police of his presence before the protest. “I would therefore remind you that if journalists cover demonstrations, in accordance with the law enforcement plan, they must approach the authorities,” he said. He later toned that down, saying there was no such obligation, but the incident triggered outrage among French media outlets.

With France’s rights ombudsman and even some Macron MPS calling for “clause 24” to be scrapped, Mr Darmanin’s office said the law would be amended so journalists were exempt from the ban by adding the words “without prejudicing the right to inform”.

Olivier Faure, head of the opposition Socialists, said: “Macron styled himself as a rampart against a drift toward repression. He has become its promoter.”