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What can we do to help liberate our colleagues? French journalists
have been struggling with this dilemma since December 30, when two reporters of
the public service TV channel In the past, from Jean-Paul
Kauffmann in
This time it took 70 days before
they organized the first public event, a low-key demonstration on Tuesday in
This event was a reflection of the
dilemmas and doubts about the best approach to free the hostages. “Should we
drum up public support or respect the complete silence requested by the French
intelligence agencies?” asked some participants. “We are not really sure what
we should do.”
The demonstration, however, had
another script beyond the fate of the hostages: The demonstrators convened by
Reporters Without Borders, the National Union of Journalists (SNJ), the France
3 journalists’ association and Hostages of the World wanted to send a message
to the French government: Hervé and
Stéphane are not reckless reporters, they knew the risks of their assignment,
and they acted professionally. The French press has the right to cover wars
independent of official instructions.
Indeed, this hostage crisis has
been marred from the beginning by a very tense exchange between representatives
of the state and the press. The controversy had been brewing for years. After Aubenas’
liberation from her Iraqi kidnappers in June 2005 the French media had seemed
to abide by the government’s calls for utmost caution and refrained from
sending reporters on dangerous assignments when the risk, as assessed by the
French military, seemed too high.
According to Elysée insiders,
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s first reaction to the news of the abduction of the
On January 17, Claude Guéant, the
general secretary of the Elysée, openly expressed his irritation. “You cannot
try to get a scoop at all cost. These journalists create major risks for our
armed forces which are, in fact, diverted from their main missions.”
Adding insult to injury, in late
February the chief of the French Army, Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, complained on
a major French radio station about the cost of the attempts to free the
hostages: “We have already spent 10 million euros on this operation”, he said
acidly. “It is a drain on our budget.”
The reactions of the media were
immediate and outraged, especially since they had been asked by the authorities
to keep silent in order to not raise the stakes and hamper the negotiations.
Florence Aubenas snapped back:
“Journalists have up to now respected the instruction to be silent. What is
surprising is that this instruction is broken by the ones who ordered it and
instead of words of compassion or solidarity they only heap reproaches on our
colleagues.”
“It is a shame,” said Anne Nivat,
one of the most famous French war correspondents. “Covering a war is by
definition risky. You cannot content yourself with the war coverage of the spin
service of the army!”
Opacity continues to prevail on
the fate of the hostages. In February, a video showed that the two French
journalists were alive, and it was learned that the Afghan driver had been
released. But there was no news on the other two Afghan assistants.
Most of the French media have been
focusing on their two colleagues, and the hostages’ story seems to have become
a French story enmeshed in French politics.
On Tuesday, however, although the
most visible placards mentioned only Hervé and Stéphane some speakers referred
to Mohamed, Ghulam, and Satar, the three Afghan assistants, an acknowledgment
that international journalists could not even think of working in
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