On Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron’s government presented its “global security” bill to the National Assembly. Coming after the announcement of plans for a law against “separatism” ostensibly targeting Islamist groups, this bill is part of a campaign to establish a permanent state of emergency, handing draconian powers to the police.
Its provisions are unprecedented. Anyone publishing of images of a public event including police agents in a way that could “harm the agent’s physical or psychological well-being” faces one year in jail and a €45,000 fine. This purely subjective criterion, which allows police to arrest anyone filming them simply by stating that they feel uncomfortable being filmed, undermines freedom of the press and any attempt to hold security forces accountable for police brutality.
The law also grants police vast new powers to carry out video-surveillance of the population. Access to security cameras in stores or public institutions as well as apartment complexes will be granted not only to national but also municipal police. Moreover, the bill authorises police to deploy drones with facial recognition technology to overfly and monitor public protest marches.
It comes, moreover, after it emerged that the government quietly slipped a provision into its law authorising university research funding to effectively ban protests in universities. It reads: “Penetrating or remaining in an institution of higher education without authorisation by legislative or regulatory acts or by the appropriate authorities, in order to disturb the tranquility or good order of the establishment, can face penalties.” These include three years in prison and a €45,000 fine.
Macron prepares “global security” law banning the filming of French police
The law, denounced by the UN, is a desperate attempt to silence rising public anger at social inequality and the official handling of the pandemic with all-out police terror.
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