(RSF/IFEX) – RSF deplores the increase in recent months of decisions and practices by French legal authorities that seriously undermine the right to freely publish information. RSF’s stand follows revelations by the French daily “Le Monde” on 30 January 2002 that six journalists’ phones were tapped in 2000 and 2001 as part of an investigation […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF deplores the increase in recent months of decisions and practices by French legal authorities that seriously undermine the right to freely publish information. RSF’s stand follows revelations by the French daily “Le Monde” on 30 January 2002 that six journalists’ phones were tapped in 2000 and 2001 as part of an investigation by the French National Anti-Terrorist Service (DNAT) into events in Corsica.
RSF is concerned by the number of encroachments on freedom of information by legal decisions during 2001. The fact that about fifteen journalists were held for questioning, charged or convicted (or had their convictions upheld on appeal) in 2001 shows how readily legal officials are prepared to resort to measures to force journalists to reveal their information to the authorities first and also punish any press disclosures of material considered “secret” in sensitive scandals, especially those concerning political and financial abuses and Corsica.
The alleged telephone surveillance of Jean-Pierre Rey, a journalist from the Gamma agency, Michèle Fines, a senior editor with France 2 television, Delphine Byrka, a journalist from “Paris-Match” magazine, Roger Auque, a freelance journalist working for “Figaro Magazine” and TF1 television, Jean-Michel Verne of the newspapers “France-Soir” and “Le Figaro” and Guy Benhamou, a freelance journalist, is a new violation of journalists’ right not to reveal their sources.
The DNAT also held Rey for questioning for nearly four days in September 2001. The 15 June 2000 Law stipulates that a person cannot be detained unless there are “reasons to assume they have committed or tried to commit an offence”. The five journalists, each held for questioning at various times since 1 January 2000, have denounced what they label a form of pressure aimed at forcing them to disclose information covered by the right not to reveal sources. RSF has urged French Justice Minister Marylise Lebranchu to amend the Criminal Law Procedure rules (Article 109, Paragraph 2) to better protect journalists’ rights not to reveal the sources of information gathered in the course of their work.
French courts are still giving priority to the confidentiality of the preliminary examination of a case, and to the principle of presumed innocence, over journalists’ rights to seek out and freely publish information. This persistently contradicts European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rulings, which usually gives priority to journalists’ rights, on grounds that “safeguarding press freedom is in the interests of a democratic society”.
This practice by French courts led to journalists being charged or convicted of defamation in 2001 on account of articles investigating matters of public interest, such as scandals about contaminated blood transfusions and illegal arms sales to Angola. Journalists have been accused of “jeopardising the presumption of innocence” under the 15 June 2000 Law, by publishing a photo of former Elf oil company chairman Alfred Sirven in Paris’s Santé prison, for example. They have also been charged with “violating the right to privacy”, a new offence applied to the press photographers who were cleared in 1999 in the accidental death of Britain’s Princess Diana the previous year.
Meanwhile, the French Supreme Court has endorsed a new crime for journalists of “being in possession of a breach of the confidentiality of a preliminary legal investigation”. As such, the court upheld the conviction of a group of journalists who disclosed documents from an inquiry into a scandal involving phone-tapping ordered by the French presidency. Journalists are not legally bound by this confidentiality, as are judges, police and court clerks. Nor are they bound by professional secrecy, as are lawyers. The offence of “possessing” breaches of these kinds of confidentiality have emerged with the politico-financial scandals of the 1990s and has since been regularly used by the courts.
In 2001, the Supreme Court confirmed this legal innovation even though the ECHR condemned France in 1999 in another case, saying that conviction of a journalist for possessing a document involving professional secrecy was abnormal “interference” by legal authorities in freedom of expression. This development in French law goes against the right of journalists accused of defamation to present proof of their allegations or details of their investigation. A journalist was convicted in May 2001 for having presented material from a judge’s preliminary investigation in his defence.
RSF urges the French authorities and candidates in the country’s forthcoming presidential election to take a stand on this development, which is a threat to investigative journalism and, by extension, to every citizen’s right to be freely informed of even the most sensitive matters.
