Urban violence: Interior Ministry removes directive contested by journalists

By The New Obs with AFP

Published on September 11, 2025 at 5:20 p.m.

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The Interior Ministry announced on Thursday, September 11, the withdrawal of a directive contested by journalists' organizations , who feared that it would allow law enforcement to prevent them from covering urban violence.

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This announcement was made in the brief submitted by Beauvau for a hearing later this morning before the Council of State. He had been contacted by the SNJ-CGT journalists' union regarding this "national plan for urban violence" (SNVU), a set of directives intended for law enforcement.

"A new version" of the text "has been adopted and is being distributed to all law enforcement agencies," after being "expurgated" of a phrase contested by journalists' organizations, writes the Interior Ministry.

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This formula "having been, due to its ambiguity, misunderstood by observers, it was decided to withdraw it" , continues the ministry, according to which the text has been renamed "Operational Guide to Urban Violence" .

The formula in question stipulated that "taking into account the status of journalists (...) does not apply in a context of urban violence" .

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It had provoked outrage among unions and journalists' organizations, ahead of the " Block Everything" movement on Wednesday and the day of action called by the unions on September 18.

In a statement, the SNJ-CGT said it was "happy with this first victory and with the Interior Ministry's backing down." "A number of provisions equating journalists with protesters aimed to deprive journalists of the protection inherent in their role and to disproportionately hinder the freedom to inform," argued the union, defended by lawyer Arié Alimi.

The SNJ, the leading journalists' organisation, said last week that "press freedom was threatened" by these provisions which could, for example, prevent coverage of "possible police abuses" .

In its brief sent to the Council of State, the Ministry of the Interior maintains, however, that the old text "did not aim (...) to reduce the rights of the press" .

According to the ministry, the text aimed to "note that certain obligations" of the police towards journalists (designating a contact person to contact, providing information in real time, etc.) "were incompatible with the unexpected nature of urban riots."