Protestors assaulted a BuzzFeed News reporter in Paris Thursday at a rally organized by the Jewish Defense League, an extremist group the French government has considered banning. (BuzzFeed)
David Perrotin was covering the protest, which had amassed more than 200 members of the JDL, the Organization of European Jews, and Impact against the AFP for its supposedly “anti-Israel” coverage. Throughout the day, the protest was generally uneventful—aside from a few tossed eggs and insults. Come nightfall, things took a turn when the riot police dispatched to protect the AFP office building tried to disperse the crowds. Perrotin rushed toward the police line in front of the AFP, but was stopped by a group of masked men who proceeded to beat him. (Mediaite)
The Jewish Defense League, a radical group that practices anti-Arab nationalism, has menaced journalists before. In June 2014, two members of the league were jailed for planting a bomb under the car of an anti-Zionist journalist, according to the Times of Israel. (Poynter / MediaWire)