The European
Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the European group of the International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ), today expresses its deepest concern following
a further violation of the law on protection of sources in France, reportedly
ordered by the French authorities.
"For the second time in recent months, the law on protection of sources
has been grossly violated in France, apparently on the orders of the highest
leaders of this country, in spite of their responsibility for ensuring the
implementation of the laws to ensure freedom of the press," said EFJ
President Arne König.
The French daily Le
Monde announced its intention to lodge a new complaint "against X" [a complaint against unknown people
according to French law] after the police requested access to detailed phone bills
of two journalists of this newspaper, Jacques Follorou and Gérard Davet, about
the "Bettencourt" court-case. However, Article 77-1-1 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure requires the prosecutor to obtain permission from reporters before
seeking to access their detailed bills.
On 20 September, Le Monde had already brought a complaint for breach of
confidentiality of sources. The paper claimed the Executive Branch of the
National Police (DGPN) and services of the DCRI, the intelligence services, had
spied on Le Monde to try to discover the source of the newspaper in the Woerth-Bettencourt
case.
The EFJ
denounced the French government in September about the first case of
breach of confidentiality of sources on Le Monde (http://europe.ifj.org/en/articles/efj-condemns-actions-by-french-government-against-journalists-rights)
The protection of journalistic sources is the cornerstone of press freedom in
Europe, defined by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and
enshrined as such by the constant case-law of the European Court of Human
Rights (ECHR). In France, a special law was enacted on 4 January 2010,
stipulating that it was illegal to attempt "to discover the sources of a
journalist by investigations on any person who, because of its usual
relationship with a journalist, may hold information identifying these
sources".
The EFJ is worried by these successive and repeated attacks against the law on
protection of sources in France: in addition to Le Monde, the case
of journalists working for Le Point and L'Equipe are currently
being examined by the ECHR. The EFJ and the Syndicat National
des Journalistes (SNJ) have submitted comments to these cases under the
third party intervention.
This latest
complaint "against X" supported by the SNJ and the SNJ-CGT follows
the lawsuit brought by the online
media Médiapart in defamation against the Secretary General of the
ruling party, Xavier Bertrand
The EFJ says
that, though protected under the law across Europe, the confidentiality of
sources, is undermined in practice in many countries in the name of "state
security" through abuse of power and especially thanks to technology that
allows the tracing of electronic communications. The EFJ has organised a
roundtable in London on 21 September in order to define common strategies in
Europe.
For
more information, please contact the EFJ at 32 2 235 2200
The
EFJ represents over 250,000 journalists in 30 countries in Europe
