Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said in Parliament that there had been no “manipulation” of the justice system and that freedom of the press and the protection of journalists’ sources were “cornerstones for our democracy.”
“That is the concept of justice that is supported by this government,” she said.
Delphine Meillet, a lawyer in Paris who specializes in press law, said police raids on the offices of news outlets were “extremely rare” in France, with only a handful of cases in the past few decades. Journalists have a legal right not to reveal their sources.
But Ms. Meillet noted that French prosecutors are not independent. They answer to their hierarchy, the Justice Ministry and, as a result, to the executive. Mr. Macron was much more closely involved in the nomination of the Paris prosecutor than his predecessor, François Hollande.
That puts prosecutors in a difficult spot when the president is connected to an investigation, Ms. Meillet said, especially in this case, because “it’s not just any media that they were going to search.”
Mediapart, an online, subscription-based publication, has garnered a reputation in France for hard-hitting investigations of politicians and other officials, with direct consequences, including the downfall of a budget minister and the opening of an investigation into possible Libyan financing of former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign.
The company’s publisher, Edwy Plenel, said at a news conference after Monday’s attempted search that Mediapart was “violating the privacy of no one” and that it was “publishing information in the public interest.”
Mr. Macron’s political opponents seized on the case as proof of his monarchical leadership and lack of appetite for dissent.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/world/europe/mediapart-raid.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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