France’s Le Monde newspaper accused the presidency on Monday of breaking press freedom laws when it sought the identity of a source who leaked details in the scandal dogging one of its ministers.
Le Monde said that an article from July naming French Labor Minister Eric Woerth in connection with a police investigation had “particularly irritated the Elysee” palace.
The president’s office used intelligence services to track down the article’s source “outside of any judicial procedure,” and more than two weeks before the opening of an official inquiry into the leak, it said.
The Elysee dismissed the claims, saying: “It never gave the least instruction to any service whatsoever.”
The allegations mark the latest twist in an affair that has embroiled Woerth, a close ally of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the country’s richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt.
What began as a family feud between Bettencourt and her daughter has exploded into a series of investigations concerning political donations, suspected tax evasion and money laundering.
Union leaders, at odds with Woerth over pension reform, have said they can no longer work with the minister as almost daily attacks against him were now too big a distraction.
Any Elysee intervention was a breach of laws protecting journalists from revealing their sources, Le Monde said, adding that the man identified as the source had since been relieved of his duties and sent to work for a court in French Guyana.
Le Monde said it planned to file a lawsuit over the issue.
Sarkozy’s popularity rating is already close to record lows and his administration faces a new round of nationwide strikes on Sept. 23 against pension reform.
The government’s deportation of Roma last month drew criticism from the UN, the EU and the Pope, and saw opposition and left-wing groups protest across France.
The outcry grew louder over the weekend with the publication of an interior ministry memorandum ordering police to prioritize the expulsion of Roma from illegal camps over other ethnic groups, days after the barrage of criticism.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered