Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...

Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and Napoleon III
Le Monde’s columns while advocating the supremacy of the raison d’état over the freedom of
the press; accordingly this allegation was taken very seriously and ended up the 4 th of
November 2010 in the auditing of the General Director of the National Police (Péchenard) and
the DCRI’s Director (Squarcini) by the French Parliament (as rapported by Le Parisien in its
edition of the same day). Another revelation, issued this time by Médiapart - the information
website at the origins of the Bettencourt scandal – accused the French president of having
entrusted the French secret services with the spying on two of their journalists who were
investigating the Karachi and the Bettencourt affairs. Second, Le Monde piled up several
testimonials of journalists who were indicted in 2008 with the charge of “retention of
information”. As a matter of fact, these journalists refused to unveil their sources on the
Bettencourt affair in the name of the “source protection” law. Sarkozy’s answer was
instantaneous: few days later, he entrusted the National Assembly with the examination of a
law amendment according to which “the preservation of journalists’ sources can exceptionally
be dismissed when an overriding public interest justifies it”. Scalbert awarded then France of the
title of “European champion of judiciary actions against the press (related to sources
preservation in Affaires d’Etat): in one week, five house-searches, two indictments, and four
summonses for journalists” (2008), considering by this way that the freedom of press in France
was exposed to a severe devolution.
The rise of a Sarkophobic editorial line consequent to these revelations among the
professionals, and mainly among the five public channels (FR2, FR3, FR4, FR5, and FRO) as
explained by Wells lead to a presidential coup d’éclat: Sarkozy decided to burst into the sector
by first ending “all advertising on public television channels” (2009). This surprising measure
A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/
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