Evacuation of the Calais “jungle” in June 1343. – Mr Libert / 20 Minutes
- Two journalists appealed to the administrative court of Lille about their working conditions to cover the dismantling of migrant camps in Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
They claim to be “prevented from work ”because of the security perimeters put in place during each operation.
Two journalists denounced, Monday, before the administrative court of Lille, the ” obstructs “the freedom to inform What, according to them, represents the impossibility of access to evacuations of migrant camps on the coast of North and Pas-de-Calais . They ask to the court to order the prefectures of Nord and Pas-de-Calais to “authorize them to access the various evacuation sites” in order to carry out their reports there.
“We are above all here to be able to do our work right now T, we are simply asking to be able to return to the field and cover what is happening there ”, explained before the hearing the independent journalist editor Simon Hamy, at the origin of this appeal for“ summary liberty ”with his colleague. photojournalist working under the pseudonym Louis Witter. Freedom to inform against a security perimeter The two journalists of 29 and 20 years denounce a “serious attack” and illegal to the freedom to inform, after being seen “oppose a refusal to document” migrant evacuation operations on five occasions, last Tuesday and Wednesday, in Grande-Synthe, Coquelles and in several places in Calais. In addition to being prohibited from entering a large security perimeter, they described a hand resting on a camera lens and using a projector to dazzle them. “A security perimeter is something of everything absolutely classic “, insisted on behalf of the North Prefecture Hervé Tourmente, sub-prefect of Dunkirk, ensuring that” this does not shock absolutely anyone and not even the press “. The main stake, according to him, is “to avoid any accident”, while construction machinery circulates in the area and firearms or knives may also be present. The sub-prefect of Calais Michel Tournaire, for his part, indicated that ‘At the end of each operation, a press release was issued which “gave precise details of the people sheltered”. At the hearing, their lawyer, Maître H enry-François Cattoir, underlined that if articles had been published on these expulsions, almost daily in Calaisis, “the exercise of the freedom of the press to be total ”. “Should an accreditation as suggested by Mr. Darmanin to cover police operations?” »He pretended to wonder. “The only two countries where I was prevented from approaching the dismantling of camps, it is the Hungary of Viktor Orban and the Morocco of Mohammed VI”, pointed out Louis Witter, who wished during his visit to the Calais coast to work on “the trauma of morning expulsions” of migrants. On his Twitter account, he posted a series of images on Tuesday showing in particular a man in a jumpsuit slashing a tent. Photos taken “while chipping away”. “These are cleaning companies that accompany the police […] and whose role is to tear up the tents to avoid their reuse, or to take other personal belongings to the dumpsters. refugees ”, assures the photographer. “How to stab a refugee tent at nine in the morning by three degrees celsius”, instructions provided by @prefect59 this morning in Grande-Synthe. pic.twitter.com/HVyHiNAIGR – Louis Witter (@LouisWitter) December 30, 2018
In this case, the national union of journalists (SNJ) submitted a memorandum in voluntary intervention to support the two journalists , considering that the refusals which they encountered constituted “undeniably an attack on the freedom of the press”. Photos obtained by “chipping”
“We have protocols for the recovery of personal effects” from migrants and “an agreement with a resource center ”for the tents, on the contrary indicated Michel Tournaire.
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