| French soldiers patrol along the Promenade des anglais on the eve of the commemoration ceremony of the July 14 fatal truck attack in Nice |
A French court on Thursday said Paris Match’s publication of graphic pictures of the Bastille day attack in Nice was “obscene” and barred it from putting them on its website but did not heed calls to remove the magazine from news stands.
Paris Match defended its decision to publish the images – including ones showing a truck ploughing into the crowd where 86 people were killed and hundreds injured – saying they were meant to inform the public and ensure the victims were not forgotten.
But in an emergency ruling responding to the Paris prosecutor’s call for the magazine to be pulled from sale, the court said the pictures were “obscene for showing victims running away to try and escape death or about to die.”
Eric Morain, a lawyer for several victims’ associations said the images were “an insult to the victims’ dignity.”
Other pictures in the magazine’s latest edition show the bloodied body of the 31-year-old Tunisian attacker in the cab of his hired truck, a selfie the Islamic State loyalist took on the afternoon of the attack at the spot it was to happen, and other taken at the same site some months earlier.
The court said ordering physical copies of the magazine to be pulled from sale would not be an “efficient measure”.
President Emmanuel Macron will be in Nice on Friday for a ceremony remembering the attack, one year on. The government has been criticised for not doing enough to help the victims.