Unacceptable Aggression Against M6 Journalist
On Tuesday, June 6, 2023, the M6info Twitter account shared a worrying news. Stéphane Gendarme, the director of information at M6, then commented: “This aggression is unacceptable and I condemn it. Our job is to inform and it will remain so.” The attacked journalist was therefore covering a subject around a mediatheque in the Pissevin district, closed due to drug traffickers, who have taken over the place for a few weeks and are creating an atmosphere of insecurity. Midi Libre speaks of three assailants against our colleague, while the media Objectif Gard states that a 17-year-old minor was placed in police custody in the afternoon of Tuesday, but it still had to be determined if he was indeed involved in the case.
Mayor’s Justification of Closure
The mayor of the city, Jean-Paul Fournier, had indicated the day before that it was not planned for the mediatheque, one of the last public services in Pissevin, to reopen its doors to the public. “Despite the regular interventions of the police, delinquents indulging in drug trafficking with impunity threaten the municipal staff of our mediatheque on a daily basis. Today, there is a risk of serious threat to the safety of the agents,” he had justified.
Minister’s Response to Aggression
After the announcement of the journalist’s attack, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin also firmly condemned these acts of violence but above all promised to send a CRS brigade to Pissevin “to guarantee public peace”. The Nîmes prosecutor, Cécile Gensac, announced on Tuesday the opening of a “preliminary investigation” into the facts concerning the mediatheque and a “flagrant investigation” for the attack of which the M6 journalist was the victim.
