August 22 was the “day of overtaking”, the date when humanity consumed all the resources that the Earth can produce in a year. Bad times for the planet, but also for the journalists who are interested in it. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) chose this symbolic date to publish an investigation into the conditions of journalists working on environmental issues. In less than five years, RSF has recorded at least 10 deaths and 53 cases of press freedom violations linked to this theme in the world.
And France is not spared: journalists specializing in environmental issues are also subject to intimidation and threats. "We feel that we have a strong enough pressure to stay in subjects that do not make noise, to turn on the tap of lukewarm water", confirms the microphone of Philippe Vandel the journalist Morgan Large. This last investigation in particular on the food industry, the problem of green algae and pollution of quarries.
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Its investigations have notably resulted in the Kreiz Breizh radio station, for which it works, withdrawals of subsidies from city mayors hosting industrial sites dangerous for the environment. People came to intimidate the journalist at her home. Her colleague Inès Léraud, who works on the same themes, has been the subject of two defamation complaints in two years. These legal proceedings aim to "silence journalists", according to Catherine Monnet, associate editor at RSF.
And the pressures do not always come from individuals or manufacturers. Journalist Alexandre-Reza Kokabi was taken into police custody for 10 hours, while following an action by the environmental movement Extinction Rébellion at Orly airport for the Reporterre news site.
A global phenomenon that continues
For Catherine Monnet of RSF, also a guest of Culture Media, on Europe 1, "the whole planet is concerned" by these threats against environmental journalists. However, the American continent and Asia account for 66% of the incidents listed. The journalist also cites the case of journalists Elena Kostyuchenko and Youri Kozyrev, imprisoned several times in June 2020, while investigating the environmental disaster in Norilsk.
In Canada and the United States dozens of journalists were arrested between 2016 and 2020 while covering protests of environmentalists and indigenous communities opposed to the construction of a gas pipeline, a large hydroelectric dam and a pipeline.
The association for the fight for press freedom counts 10 journalists who died for their work on environmental issues between 2010 and 2020. This is as much as during the period 2010-2015. "But the year is not yet over," recalls Catherine Monnet, deputy editor-in-chief of RSF, at the microphone of Philippe Vandel. "And we have identified three journalists who went into exile to escape death."