press release: Freedom of press stamped out: Declaration of journalists at the edge of the noborder-camp in Strassbourg
this release is available in: [en] [de] [fr]
25.Jul.02 - Two journalists from Cologne, Germany, who were filming a demonstration of the no border camp in Strasbourg, France on the 24th of July 2002 were treated as follows.
On the Boulevard de la Victoire the team documented brutal actions of policemen. Police were beating defenseless people without any reason and spraying teargas on them from a very short distance. Suddenly, 6 to 8 policemen were run towards the colleagues. Without any demand to stop the filming and although both introduced themselves as German journalists by presenting their press cards, police officers snatched their camera. One journalist was sprayed with teargas and beaten up while lying on the ground. At the same time, police officers opened the camera and stole the tape. Despite several requests, they did not return the footage.
Other journalists also were attacked by the french police in a similar way: a photographer had the film been ripped out of his camera, after he had taken pictures of police brutality against demonstrators. He also had identified himself as a journalist. Another cameraman also had his equipment beaten by the police, damging his camera. The art-media-project "publix-theatre-caravan" was victim to a police attack at the periphery of yesterdays demonstration. A DV-Video-Tape and a video-memory-card were brutally ripped away from them.
We protest against the massive attack on the freedom of the press and against the mistreatment of our colleagues.We demand the immediate return of stolen footage and film. We will not accept the police interference of journalists documenting the noborder-protests.
(Kontakt: Jochen Schüller - 0049 - 179-1095737)
Marily Stroux: free lance - Verdi - IG-Medien (Germany/Greece); Ronen Eidelman: independent (Tel Aviv, Israel); Florian Schneider: free lance - ZDF / Arte (Germany); Maksym Butkevych: "1+1" TV (Ukraine); Axel Dennecke: free lance - Westdeutscher Rundfunk / Deutsche Welle (Germany); Jochen Schüller: free lance - Westdeutscher Rundfunk TV (Germany); Florian Busch: Deutscher Presseverband (Germany); Armin Smailovic: free lance - Spiegel, SZ, Stern (Germany); Alexander Kaltenborn; free lance (Germany); u.a.