Anti-Global Security Law protests (January 30, 2021)
Florence Gallez | Paris, France
Photographer: Florence Gallez
Exhibit Title: Anti-Global Security Law protests (January 30, 2021)
Location: Paris, France
Thousands of Parisians protested France’s proposed ‘Global Security Law’ at Place de La République on January 30, together with other restrictive government measures in the face of Covid-19.
Activists decried the proposed security law, that would make it more difficult to film police officers and outlaw the publication of images that intent to cause harm to police, in demonstrations across France that at times turned violent. Police in Paris tried to contain the 5,000 demonstrators and arrested nearly 150 people suspected of organizing group violence against police officers.
The new controversial security bill has sparked successive weekends of demonstrations ever since it was adopted on November 24 at the National Assembly, the lower chamber of parliament. On April 15, the bill was adopted by parliament by 75 votes to 33. The Socialist parliamentary group has since then announced the filing of an appeal to the Constitutional Council.
Journalists’ groups, human rightsactivists and unions fear that with the proposed ban of images of on-duty police officers would come a whole arsenal of tools to restrict public freedoms and amplify repression.
Florence Gallez is an independent documentary photojournalist and black and white photographer from Brussels, Belgium, currently based in Paris. Gallez received a BA degree in English and Russian from the University of London in 1996, an MSc in journalism from Boston University in 1999, and a digital media focused MSc from MIT in 2012. She spent eight years as a Moscow-based journalist covering Russian politics, economics, society, and culture for The Moscow Times, the U.S. publisher Bureau of National Affairs (Bloomberg BNA), and most recently CNN’s Moscow Bureau. As a photographer of social documentaries, she seeks to bring more visibility to people who are in challenging situations and often not cared for by society, especially women and children. In Paris, she is also contributing local and international news and social documentaries to the French photo agency Wostok Press and Russian newsagency Sputnik/Rossiya Segodnya.
Florence Gallez
Photojournalist
fgallez@alum.mit.edu
http://florencegallez.com
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