A correspondent with RT France has been beaten with a baton by a police officer in the French city of Toulouse where he was filming a Yellow Vests protest. He was wearing press identification.
A video the reporter shared on Twitter shows a police officer wearing riot gear and holding a baton striking him at the moment when he was filming a protester’s arrest. The correspondent had a label on his clothes that clearly identified him as a member of the press, RT France said.
The journalist did not sustain any serious injuries as a result of the incident. He remained at the scene and continued to film the protest following the encounter.
On Saturday, Yellow Vests marched across France for the 28th straight weekend. The movement that started with a protest against a planned fuel tax hike in November 2018 later turned into a force opposing President Emmanuel Macron’s broader reform agenda.
The Yellow Vests’ numbers have dwindled in the months after the movement reached its height. Some 12,500 protesters took to the streets this time, according to police. An activist group monitoring the demonstrations put the number at some 35,000, though.
Despite the relatively small number of demonstrators, the protests ended up in clashes with police on several occasions. In Toulouse, police had to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. Several protesters were detained.
Tear gas was also used against protesters in the French capital of Paris.
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