Communiqué de presse   MDM’s photographer attacked and now denied the right to photograph

Imposing “silence” to Médecins du Monde (MDM) regarding the living conditions of immigrants in Greece

MDM’s photographer attacked and now denied the right to photograph

Athens, September 8th, 2008. The recent refusal of the authorities to authorize the photographer of Médecins du Monde, Olivier Jobard, to present the living conditions of immigrants in Patras and the Aegean islands –on the Turkish border-, puts unrivalled obstacles to the independent humanitarian work of the organisation and to its “speak-out” role regarding the populations in need.

After the attack, the beating-up and the arrest of the French photographer, Olivier Jobard, by the Patras Port Authorities in July, where he was in a MDM mission to photograph undocumented immigrants, the recent refusal from the Government’s General Secretariat of Information to authorise him to continue his photographic mission in our country attempts to “silence” Médecins du Monde’s work on this vulnerable group.

In the frame of the research done by the “European Observatory of Médecins du Monde for undocumented migrants” in 11 countries, Olivier Jobard, photographer of the international agency SIPA PRESS, undertook a project, to photograph immigrants who travel and live without legal documents seeking for a better future in European countries.

On July 21st the case was postponed and a new trial was to take place on the 3rd of September 2008, which was postponed once again (!)…

The background of the attack and the arrest

The incident happened on the 4th of July, when Olivier Jobard was in the Port of Patras following a team of Afghan refugees in an attempt to photograph their effort to leave for Bari, in Italy. In words of the photographer, a member of the special forces of the Port Authorities asked Olivier Jobard to approach him and, without asking for his passport or any other identity document, the member of the Port Authorities violently snatched the photographer’s camera and then he guided him with aggressiveness to the port’s public toilets. First, he handcuffed the photographer and then hit him on the head. The member of Port Authorities also cut the lead of his camera and destroyed the camera.

Olivier Jobard was accused of “resistance against the authorities and physical damage” (!)

It should be noted that the photographer had initiated the procedure to obtain the authorization to photograph and his behaviour was in accordance with the law.

Greece was the first stage of Olivier Jobard’s mission. After this experience, he told us: “The immigrants I talked to told me about the brutal conditions of their detention and the violence they often experience. In the beginning it was difficult for me to believe them. After what happened to me, it is no longer difficult…”.

What could the photographer have seen?

Could he have seen people chained and forgotten in the courtyard of the Port Authorities in a blazing sun for more than 48 hours ?
Could he have seen desperate people climbing guardrails in the port in order to get into the first ship and reach Italy and even further away…
Could he have seen with the eyes of his photographic lens what the research of MDM’s European Observatory reports regarding health problems faced by undocumented immigrants?
Could he have seen the often inhuman behaviour immigrants are victims of?
Could he have seen the lack of infrastructures to welcome immigrants in the big urban centres, which results in immigrants packed in dens where they are deprived of basic hygiene?

« Finally, might he have seen and witness the hope that turns into query and the smile in an expression of pain?”, asks Christos Velissaropoulos, General Secretary and Representative of MDM Greece in the MDM European Observatory. “Perhaps the photographer of the International Network of Médecins du Monde saw all these things. As we ourselves see and experience in our daily work for this population. And in order to be able to continue working effectively for them, our voice has to be their voice. And when the Greek Authorities ask us to be quiet, substantially they bring into darkness the tragic reality that this population experiences. And when this happens, we react intensely”, adds Christos Velissaropoulos.

Médecins du Monde would like to express intense reaction regarding the denial of the Greek authorities to provide permission to the photographer as an act that hampers our humanitarian work. At the same time we express our deepest concerns regarding the vulnerable population of immigrants and refugees living in Greece.