(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders said it was concerned and shocked after an examining judge in the Paris suburb of Nanterre placed five journalists under investigation on 12 and 13 October 2005. Three journalists with the weekly “Le Point”, Christophe Labbé, Olivia Recasens and Jean-Michel Décujis, as well as two journalists with the sports daily […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders said it was concerned and shocked after an examining judge in the Paris suburb of Nanterre placed five journalists under investigation on 12 and 13 October 2005.
Three journalists with the weekly “Le Point”, Christophe Labbé, Olivia Recasens and Jean-Michel Décujis, as well as two journalists with the sports daily “L’Equipe”, Damien Ressiot and Dominique Issartel, are accused of “violation of the confidentiality of an investigation” in the Cofidis cycling team doping case.
“The right to protect sources, which is guaranteed by Article 109 of the Criminal Code and by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, has once again been trampled on. It is shocking that journalists who were only doing their job should be put under investigation,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said.
“The tendency of the courts to put pressure on journalists to reveal their sources is extremely intense at the moment in France and in Europe more generally. On top of that, the journalists’ work does not appear to have impeded the investigation into the Cofidis case. French law should urgently be amended to get rid of the concept of violation of the confidentiality of an investigation, which is an aberration and only harms investigative journalists”, said Reporters Without Borders.
“We would like to point out that the journalists that have been put under investigation are good journalists who have done their job well”, said François Malye, head of the editors’ group at “Le Point”. “Luckily for the profession, the journalists’ sources have not been identified, despite a misuse of technology”, he added.
In early 2004, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for violation of the confidentiality of an investigation after “Le Point”‘s 22 January 2004 publication of transcripts of phone-tapped conversations ordered by Judge Richard Pallain in the cycling team doping case involving Cofidis trainers and riders. “L’Equipe”, for its part, published lengthy extracts on 9 April 2004 from the official interviews with several Cofidis riders, some of whom had been put under investigation.
On 13 January 2005, two virtually simultaneous searches were carried out at the premises of both publications and at the homes of two journalists with the daily sports paper. Their computer hard discs and datebooks were seized. A source close to the two papers said the journalists’ phones were subsequently tapped by those heading the investigation.