French Court Faults Deauville City for Removing AP Photograph of Gaza from Exhibition
An administrative court in Caen, France, ruled on Monday that Deauville city hall was wrong to remove an Associated Press photograph taken in Gaza from the Deauville Sport Images Festival’s outdoor exhibition. The image, by AP photographer Jehad Alshrafi, shows members of the Palestinian Ahli Gaza Club playing soccer on a synthetic green field surrounded by rubble, and it was removed in mid-August after having been displayed since 6 June. The court’s decision followed an emergency motion by the Observatoire de la liberté de creation (OLC), which argued the removal violated free expression; the city had claimed it acted to prevent public unrest and a social-media “wave of hatred.” The court found the removal was not “necessary, appropriate and proportionate” to preserve public order, ordered the photograph reinstalled before the festival ends on 6 September, and required the city to pay the OLC 1,000 euros (about $1,160).
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This story was covered in Museums in Meltdown, Billionaires in Control