The Nanterre court condemned the State on Wednesday for an attempted search carried out in 2019 at the premises of Mediapart in the context of the Benalla affair.
Article written by
Published
Reading time : 1 min.
The Nanterre court condemned the State for gross negligence after being summoned by Mediapart, due to an attempted search of the media’s headquarters, which had just revealed compromising exchanges between Alexandre Benalla and Vincent Crase with a Russian oligarch during Emmanuel Macron’s campaign in 2017.
The State will have to pay a symbolic euro in compensation for the damage done to Mediapart for having undermined freedom of expression and the secrecy of sources. Edwy Plenel, president of Mediapart, judges Thursday July 7 on franceinfo that “this euro is priceless, but at the same time it is obviously fragile.”
The reporter praised “those magistrates who defend fundamental freedoms and basically, a pillar of democracy” facing “parquet of Paris, the public prosecutor of Paris who ordered this illegal act”. Edwy Plenel considers that the magistrate was subject to the executive, weakened by the revelations of the online media.
“The Paris public prosecutor at the time rushed to, basically, discredit, suffocate, manhandle the messenger in order to stifle the message.”
Edwy Plenelat franceinfo
Edwy Plenel felt that “This search attempt was intended to identify our sources, take the data, look for the metadata, therefore, basically, to silence those who allow us to make our mission of general interest”recognizing in passing the vital importance of sources in the work of journalists.