France

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the Lyons Appeals Court’s 13 August 2003 decision to sentence the monthly “Lyon Mag” to pay 100,000 euros (approx. US$112,400) in damages to Beaujolais wine producers, describing the verdict as an “attack on press freedom.” The amount of damages set by the court is “out of all proportion to the […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 9 July 2003, a Paris court barred RSF and the French advertising agency Rampazzo from using a world-famous photograph of Cuban guerrilla leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara wearing a beret with a red star on it. The ban came at the request of Diane Diaz Lopez, daughter and heir of the late Cuban […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 26 June 2003, RSF urged the town hall of Orange in southern France to resume providing information to journalists from the local “La Provence” newspaper and to abandon plans to file a suit against the newspaper. The town hall, which is run by the far-right National Front, has given the newspaper no […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on the French government to repeal sections of the country’s press laws that contravene the European Convention on Human Rights, while accusing the government of ignoring rulings that the contentious sections should be abolished. “The European Court of Human Rights has firmly stated three times in recent years that sections […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested the actions of the Paris police in manhandling free-lance photographer Benjamin Béchet and abruptly confiscating his camera without explanation as he was covering a demonstration on 10 June 2003 at the Garnier opera house. “We are outraged by the unacceptable methods used by the police to prevent this press photographer […]

(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Justice Minister Dominique Perben, RSF expressed serious concern over the introduction of a new bill regarding internal security. The bill includes provisions allowing for new means of investigation, notably in the areas governing police search and seizure. “This bill represents a new threat to the confidentiality of journalists’ sources,” […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 24 April 2003, RSF activists were beaten by staff of the Cuban embassy in Paris when they chained themselves to the embassy railings, in the presence of several prominent cultural figures, to protest the imprisonment of 26 journalists in Cuba. Some 15 RSF protesters were attacked by Cuban embassy staff after the […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 21 February 2003, RSF condemned police efforts to prevent journalists from covering the Franco-African Summit meeting in Paris and recalled that the media must be allowed to do its work freely. Associated Press Television Network (APTN) cameraman Nicolas Garriga and Gaël Ellissade, a motorcyclist for the firm Motopresse, were arrested in front […]

(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release: The 22nd Franco-African Summit Reporters Without Borders denounces 23 press freedom “dunces” On Thursday 20 February, at 10 a.m., 23 Reporter Without Borders militants met in front of the Palais des Congrès in Paris – where the 22nd Franco-African Summit was being held – wearing T-shirts […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 13 January 2003, RSF criticised a French court’s ruling against a French magazine as “excessive and totally disproportionate.” On 10 January, a court in Villefranche-sur-Saône, near the French city of Lyon, ordered the monthly “Lyon Mag” to pay 254,143 euros (approx. US$269,000) in damages to 56 wine-producing cooperatives in the Beaujolais region. […]

(RSF/IFEX) – The antenna of the community radio station RJM (radio juive de Marseille) was vandalised on 30 December 2002, at around 6:00 p.m. (local time). The station was only able to resume its broadcasts at 2:00 p.m. the next day. The Marseille Criminal Investigation Department’s crime squad has been put in charge of the […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 6 January 2003, RSF protested the arrest of two Malian journalists who filmed the deportation of a group of Malian illegal immigrants on an airplane at a Paris airport. The two journalists, Youssouf Touré, a reporter for the Malian state television company ORTM, and cameraman Boubakar Diallo were “simply doing their job […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 20 December 2002, a Paris court barred the cable television station Histoire from broadcasting 80 hours of programming scheduled for January and February 2003 on the trial of Maurice Papon. The trial took place in a Bordeaux court from September 1997 to April 1998. At the trial’s conclusion, Papon, who served as […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 4 December 2002, RSF expressed its support for two German television journalists who are suing the mayor of Gélaucourt, in Meurthe-et-Moselle (northeastern France), for assault in connection with an incident that took place on 19 June. The case is to be heard on 6 December by the Magistrate’s Court in Nancy. The […]

(IPI/IFEX) – The following is a 7 October 2002 IPI letter to French President Jacques Chirac, on the occasion of his upcoming official state visit to Syria: His Excellency Jacques Chirac President of the Republic of France Palais de l’Elysée 55, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré F 75008 Paris Fax: +33.1.42.92.81.00 Vienna, 7 October 2002 Your Excellency, […]

(RSF/IFEX) – The Paris offices of the Damocles Network, RSF’s judicial arm, were broken into and ransacked on the night of 6 to 7 October 2002. An unidentified number of individuals entered the fourth floor offices and tampered with computer and other files. The office’s walls were marked with various threatening phrases, some of which […]