Free-speech Issues Raised in France After Brutal Arrest of Journalist

by Ese Omofoma
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France - Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday that plans were underway to decriminalize libel after the brutal arrest last week of a journalist that shocked the media and many politicians.

At 6:40 a.m. last Friday, Vittorio de Filippis, a writer and former publisher of the left-leaning newspaper Liberation, opened the door to three armed police officers as his 14-year-old son watched and another son, aged 10, listened through the bedroom door.

By the time his ordeal ended five hours later, the journalist wrote, "I had been manhandled, handcuffed, humiliated in front of my sons, twice forced to strip and submit to body cavity searches and interrogated without lawyers by an investigating magistrate, all over a two-year-old libel case."

The treatment of Filippis prompted an outcry Saturday from his colleagues, lawyers and other supporters, who said the tactics were out of place in a country with long and cherished traditions of rule of law and freedom of expression.

According to Justice Minister Rachida Dati, Filippis had ignored repeated court summonses before Justice Muriel Josie signed the warrant to bring him in by force. "When someone does not comply with summons, we send him a warrant to bring him in," Dati told lawmakers in the Senate.

However, there was some confusion as to whether Filippis ever received a summons. Officials in the prosecutor's office said three summonses had been sent, in June, July and August this year. Filippis said that he never received one, although he was careful not to entirely exclude the possibility of having missed "a letter or two" in the correspondence involving the Niel case.

"This sort of treatment just does not exist in libel cases normally because they are not punishable by even one day in prison," said Liberation's lawyer, Jean-Paul Levy.  He added, "that in 33 years of defending the newspaper in libel cases, I had never seen such violence."

On Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, asked a commission charged earlier with reforming France's penal procedure to ensure that changes are more respectful of the rights and dignity of those concerned.

For more information, please see:

PR-inside - Journalist's rough arrest for libel shocks France - 2 December 2008

IHT - French police treatment of journalist raises free-speech issues - 1 December 2008

Irish Times - Outrage over brutal treatment of journalist - 1 December 2008

Washington Post - Police Treatment of Journalist Prompts Outcry in France - 30 November 2008