(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Chief of Police Jean-Paul Proust, RSF expressed concern over the burglary of the “Dossiers du Canard enchaîné” office in Paris on 3 June 2001. “The journalist, whose computer was stolen, was investigating military affairs. This robbery deserves a thorough enquiry,” stated RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “We ask that you […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Chief of Police Jean-Paul Proust, RSF expressed concern over the burglary of the “Dossiers du Canard enchaîné” office in Paris on 3 June 2001.
“The journalist, whose computer was stolen, was investigating military affairs. This robbery deserves a thorough enquiry,” stated RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “We ask that you give this all the attention it merits and ensure that we are kept informed of the investigation’s outcome,” added Ménard.
According to information collected by RSF, the “Dossiers du Canard enchaîné” office on Petits Pères Street in Paris, was broken into on the night of 2 to 3 June. Two cabinets were rummaged through and the laptop of journalist Brigitte Rossigneux , who deals with defense issues, was stolen. The journalist wonders about the reason for the theft, which could have been motivated by the desire to identify her contacts’ names, especially those at the Ministry of Defense.
On 2 May, “Le Canard enchaîné” revealed that on 21 March there was unusual surveillance of its offices by an individual in a vehicle belonging to Paris police headquarters, according to the license plate number taken down. The individual, witnessed by the building’s concierge, was taking pictures of the storey housing the journalist’s office. An investigation was entrusted to the Ministry of the Interior’s police monitoring service (l’Inspection générale des services, IGS). On 18 May, Proust told RSF, in response to a letter from the organisation, that “the license plate is used by at least two different civil servants, one of whom works in the second Paris district and often parks at the Petits Pères Street area, generally around lunch hour. Neither of the two civil servants fits the description given by the building concierge.” The chief of police also “firmly reaffirmed that those services under his authority have never been involved in any surveillance operation of the weekly ‘Le Canard Enchaîné’.”
