Video interview: two French journalists arbitrarily arrested for covering protest against the Olympics
Two journalists who tried to cover a protest against the Olympics in the Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis spoke at length with Reporters Without Borders (RSF) about their experience being "detained for almost ten hours for absolutely nothing.” RSF calls on the French authorities to adhere to the National Law Enforcement Plan and guarantee journalists’ right to cover protests and law enforcement operations related to the Olympic Games.
Reporters covering protests in France sometimes face obstructions to their work, but rarely are two journalists arbitrarily taken into custody at the same time. Yet on 28 July, freelance journalists Patricia Huchot-Boissier and Arnaud Vilette were detained at the Saint-Denis police station simply for planning to cover a protest by Saccage 2024, an activist group critical of the organisation of the Olympic Games. They were released without charges.
"It was a detention that lasted nearly ten hours for absolutely nothing," said Arnaud Vilette in a video interview with RSF. "It was just unbearable," said his colleague Patricia Huchot-Boissier, who was detained despite being officially accredited to cover the Olympic Games, "they locked us up in a cell that measured two by four metres.”
The day before, the two reporters had been part of a group of French and foreign journalists who were “trapped” by the police while they were trying to cover another protest critical of the Olympics by the Extinction Rebellion collective in the centre of Paris. The journalists were prevented from reporting on the arrests of around fifty activists.
“We urge the Ministry of the Interior to remind law enforcement officials of journalists’ specific right to cover police actions during demonstrations, whether the protests are authorised or not, as is stated in the National Law Enforcement Plan. During the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris — held in the presence of thousands of French and foreign journalists — the right to information must be respected in an exemplary manner.
When contacted by RSF, the Paris police department responded that two journalists and a Saccage 2024 activist were "distributing leaflets in the public space," a basis for arrest that is both legally inadequate and refuted by Huchot-Boissier and Vilette. The Paris police also described the Extinction Rebellion protest as “a gathering with the intention of committing violence or damage.” They held the journalists for “the time strictly necessary to verify their identity and their non-involvement in the event,” a justification that is hard to verify.
International journalists covering the Olympics can find safety tips in this video produced by a former spokesperson of RSF.
