French Court Suspends Deauville Censorship of Palestinian Photojournalist's Gaza Image
On 20 August 2026, a photograph taken by Palestinian photojournalist Jehad Alshrafi was taken down from the Deauville Sport Images Festival in France following backlash on social media. The image depicted a football game set against the backdrop of buildings devastated by the Israeli army. Agnès Tricoire, a lawyer and founder of the Observatoire de la liberté de création (OLC), sent a letter to Deauville’s mayor, Philippe Augier, on 26 August, requesting the artwork's reinstatement. After receiving no reply, the OLC initiated a référé-liberté. On 31 August, the tribunal administratif de Caen ruled to suspend the removal, citing violations of artistic freedom, and mandated the municipality to pay damages, although it did not order the work's reinstallation. Tricoire emphasized the ruling's importance in the context of increasing censorship.
Key facts
- Jehad Alshrafi's photograph of a football match in Gaza was removed from the Deauville Sport Images Festival on 20 August 2026
- The Observatoire de la liberté de création was founded in 2002 by Agnès Tricoire and became an association in January 2024
- The tribunal administratif de Caen suspended the removal on 31 August 2026
- The court ruled the removal seriously infringed freedom of artistic creation and expression
- The court rejected an injunction to rehang the work, citing at least six days needed to reprint it
- Deauville was ordered to pay damages for infringing the work's freedom of dissemination
- Article 3 of the July 2016 LCAP law requires local authorities to protect freedom of artistic dissemination
- The OLC has advocated amending article 2 of the LCAP law and certain penal code provisions
Entities
Artists
- Agnès Tricoire
- Jehad Alshrafi
- Philippe Augier
- Pierre-Alain de Malleray
- Christine Coste
- Éva Hameau
- Emmanuelle Dreyfus
- Stéphanie Lemoine
Institutions
- Observatoire de la liberté de création
- Ligue des droits de l'Homme
- Barreau de Paris
- Deauville Sport Images Festival
- tribunal administratif de Caen
- mairie de Deauville
- Sénat
- Le Journal des Arts
- L'ŒIL
- Frac Auvergne
- Praemium Imperiale
Locations
- Deauville
- France
- Paris
- Caen
- Gaza
- Israel
- Clermont-Ferrand
- Japan