Squatted house in Toulouse: intolerable attack on a journalist from “La Dépêche du Midi”
A journalist from “La Dépêche du Midi” was attacked this Friday at the beginning of the afternoon in Toulouse by pro-squat activists who were tracking her. Two complaints were filed.
Have journalists become targets for ultra-left extremists? This Friday around 2 pm, a particularly serious incident occurred in Toulouse with the premeditated assault of a journalist from the local editorial staff of “La Dépêche du Midi”, Claire Lagadic, who works in the news service.
Our colleague was sitting in a bar-tabac in the Béarnais district when three young women, who were wearing light-colored masks, caps and coats, slipped behind her to crush eggs on her head, spill a bottle over her. water over it and insult it several times. The perpetrators of this cowardly assault fled after a scramble with some customers. Two accomplices were waiting for them at the exit of the establishment. The attackers were filmed by the store’s surveillance cameras and one of them was identified as a regular.
Claire Lagadic was in shock after this attack of unprecedented violence against a journalist. Our colleague and “La Dépêche du Midi” filed a complaint, after the two complaints the day before for “violence with the use or threat of a weapon and violence committed in a meeting”.
Obviously, this commando action is not the result of chance. It constitutes a retaliatory measure against our journalist, “guilty” according to the attackers of having told the story of a squatted house in Toulouse, rue Bresdin in the Bourrassol district. This unoccupied pavilion has been squatted for ten days by around thirty people. Any dialogue has become impossible between the occupants, the owner, the police and the journalists. Thursday afternoon, already, Claire Lagadic had wanted to get in touch with the squatters to find out their motivations and give them a voice. She was then the object of threats, insults but also throwing eggs and water while she was only doing her job. She had filed a complaint, “La Dépêche du Midi” as well.
Serious interference with freedom of the press
This new squatted house business follows that of Roland, last February north of Toulouse, but also, more recently, that of Georges, near the Izards district.
Claire Lagadic, like other journalists from “La Dépêche du Midi”, reported on these facts, without comment or bias. She would have been identified on the ultra-left networks and followed by some fanatics, until her inadmissible aggression on Friday. Was it spotted by chance by the members of a small pro-squat group or was it the object of a real trace by these same activists?
“La Dépêche du Midi” and the journalists of the Toulouse editorial staff are outraged by such methods. We condemn the actions of these extremist militants who constitute a serious attack on press freedom. We will continue our fact-finding mission despite threats, wherever they come from.