The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has condemned a blatant violation of the right to protection of sources of two French journalists by the French Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence (Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur, DCRI).

"France adopts a peculiar law on the protection of sources; what's more, it suppresses the invariable law of the European Court of Human Rights on the subject. For this, we condemn the intimidation and the infringement of the principle," declared EFJ Vice-President Philippe Leruth.

The two journalists, Andréa Fradin and Pierre Alonso, freelance journalists at Slate.fr and former workers for OWNI, have been summoned to the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence as witnesses in a preliminary enquiry on 30 April without apparent motive. They believe that their summoning has to do with an article published in OWNI in September (since taken down) that was related to a national platform of judicial interceptions accompanied by a document classified as "confidential".

EFJ stands united with the two summoned journalists and has stated that the protection of sources is a corner stone of the freedom of the press in Europe as defined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In France, a specific law officially passed on 4 January 2010 states that it is considered an infringement of the right of protection of sources when someone "searches to discover the sources of journalists by means of investigation on any person who, because of its usual relationship with a journalist, may have information that could identify sources".

For more information, please contact EFJ on + 32 2 235 22 00
The European Federation of Journalists is the European group of the International Federation of Journalists. It represents over 300,000 journalists in 37 countries.