France / Europe & Central Asia

With the world gripped in a historic wave of unrest, journalists in no fewer than 65 countries – about a third of the world – have been attacked covering protests since 2015, according to a report I authored for a U.N. agency that was published today. One thing that stood out during my research for the report Safety…

On June 11, 2019, police officers arrested Taha Bouhafs, a reporter at French news website Là-bas Si J’y Suis, allegedly assaulted him during the arrest, confiscated his mobile phone, and detained him for 24 hours, according to reports by his employer and local news outlets.

Berlin, May 23, 2019 — The General Directorate for Internal Security, France’s domestic intelligence agency, should immediately withdraw summons for questioning issued to journalists Ariane Chemin and Michel Despratx, and Le Monde publisher Louis Dreyfus, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The directorate has summoned at least four other journalists in recent months, according…

Berlin, May 14, 2019 — The General Directorate for Internal Security, France’s domestic intelligence agency, should stop pursuing investigative journalists Geoffrey Livolsi, Mathias Destal, and Benoît Collombat in a leak investigation, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On April 20, 2019, video journalists Gaspard Glanz and Alexis Kraland were arrested while covering “yellow vest” anti-government protests in Paris, according to media reports.

A conference on press freedom in Morocco held in Paris, France, was shut down on February 15, 2019, when the power was cut to the event after hecklers yelled at speakers and threw stink bombs, according to news reports, videos posted to social media, and witnesses who spoke with CPJ.

Berlin, February 4, 2019–The Paris prosecutor’s office should cease its attempts to search the offices of investigative news outlet Mediapart, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Mediapart reported that police and prosecutors attempted to search its office today as part of an investigation into the outlet’s reporting on the French president’s former top security officer…

The Grenoble office of regional French public radio station France Bleu Isère was partially destroyed in an arson attack on January 28, 2019, according to the broadcaster. On January 30, a local anti-capitalist anarchist group claimed responsibility for the attack, the station reported.

Dozens of journalists covering anti-government protests in France and Belgium in November and December of 2018 suffered attacks by the demonstrators and the police, according to press and social media reports.