Media

The foundations of press freedom in France

1,500 to 2,000 people demonstrate on July 7, 1982 in Paris to protest against the conditions of sale of the daily France Soir, which would leave Robert Hersant with a major influence on the future of the newspaper.

© Frédéric Desbois / AFP

Text by: Patricia Blettery Follow

7 mins

Because it represents an important counter-power, the press, in many countries of the world, is perceived as a threat.

We seek to limit, control the possibility for journalists to investigate freely and to inform citizens on the subjects of their choice.

In France, the freedom to inform has taken hold little by little, to the rhythm of political history, the sociological and economic transformations of the country, and also wars.

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Each citizen must be able to think for themselves, form an opinion in order to take their future into their own hands.

He has the right to be informed.

He also has the right to inform.

For this, freedom of the press must be guaranteed. 

The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious rights of man: every citizen can therefore speak, write, print freely, except to respond to the abuse of this freedom in the cases determined by law.

Recognized by the

, the freedom of the press will know at that time a first golden age.

Dozens of newspapers are born. 

Fragile freedom, including in democratic countries, it is framed by legislative texts to prevent abuse.

► 

The law of July 29, 1881, first stage

The Revolution in 1789 established freedom of expression.

But a series of authoritarian measures desired by successive regimes (Consulate, Empire, Restoration, July Monarchy, Second Empire) finally re-established the monitoring of newspapers and censorship.

It will be necessary to wait until 1881 so that the freedom of the press is defined and framed, under the Third Republic.

Article 1: The printing works and the bookshop are free.

It permanently removes the suretyship, that is to say the need for the owner of a newspaper to deposit a sum of money which is like a mortgage.

Opinion newspapers, freed from financial constraints, are reappearing.  

Law of July 29, 1881. © Gallica / BnF

The newspaper is now part of the daily life of the French.

The law of 1881

 engraves in stone the right to inform - that is to say, to affirm, to invalidate, to demonstrate, to prove, to criticize - and thus becomes one of the pillars democracy with universal suffrage.

The law suppresses attacks on public and religious morality and above all determines the rules for the exercise of the press.

It allows the courts to intervene in the context of offenses against good morals, attacks on the internal security of the State or attacks on the person of a foreign Head of State.

Despite all the assaults, as in 1882 with the "rogue" laws (following anarchist attacks, the glorification of crimes and misdemeanors is punished and allows provisional arrest), this law will resist and adapt to the various media innovations in keeping intact its foundation, that of the protection of the freedom of the press.

It should be noted that in its article 27, this law already fought against the propagation of false news likely to disturb public order. 

The publication or reproduction of false news, fabricated, falsified or falsely attributed parts to third parties, will be punished [...] when the publication or reproduction will have disturbed the public peace and that it will have been made in bad faith.

The moralization of the profession with the Charter of the duties of the journalist of 1918 and that known as that of Munich in 1971

At the end of the First World War, journalistic credibility was put to the test following the practice of "cramming".

Newspapers have taken to publishing “canards” to hide the reality of the fighting.

Journalists wonder about their duties and their rights.

The professionalization and the moralization of journalism are committed, the profession seeks to structure itself. 

, then revised and completed in January 1938 by the same union, became the reference text for French journalists.

The text highlights the notion of the journalist's responsibility with regard to his “peers”.

At the end of the Second World War, with the moral bankruptcy constituted by the collaboration of many press organs with the Nazis, reflection on journalistic ethics continued.

The responsibility of journalists vis-à-vis the public takes precedence over any other responsibility, in particular with regard to their employers and the public authorities.

The declaration of the duties and rights of journalists, signed in Munich on November 24, 1971

, enshrines ten duties, including that of respecting the truth, not to use unfair methods to obtain information and five rights, such as that of not being compelled to perform a professional act or to express an opinion that would be contrary to his conviction or his conscience.

Gradually, following several slippages observed including that of the false mass grave of Timisoara, in 1989, a sordid political staging which fooled the journalists who came to tell the fall of the Romanian regime of Ceausescu, the public seized on the question of journalism ethics.

And press organs are encouraged to adopt a charter. 

 will do the same.

The independence of the press and the law of October 23, 1984, "anti-Hersant law"

The question of press pluralism is at the heart of the debate on press freedom.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, newspapers were totally dependent on the state.

But little by little, the state will abandon the press to the private sector.

The Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française, the ORTF, disappeared in 1975, and the channels were privatized.

In 1984, a law wanted by left-wing deputies wanted to force Robert Hersant, then owner of

,

and a dozen regional dailies, to limit his media hegemonic ambitions.

The ordinance of August 26, 1944, supposed to guarantee pluralism in the aftermath of the war, serves as the basis for

.

But in 1986, Parliament passed a law relating to freedom of communication which relaxed the rules relating to concentration and transparency by not prohibiting, for example, the multiplicity of media activities of the same group. 

The independence of the media is regularly the subject of debate and questioning.

The big bosses of industry, luxury or telecoms, such as Bernard Arnault, Xavier Niel, Patrick Drahi, Arnaud Lagardère, have taken significant shares in the capital of several media.

Vincent Bolloré, for example, has built up a veritable media empire both in the audiovisual sector with the Canal group and its channels C8 and CNews, Europe 1 radio, in the press with Prisma Media, the leading group of magazines in France, the

,

and in advertising/communication with the Havas group. 

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Source protection

Guaranteed by

, the protection of the secrecy of journalistic sources is a right which allows journalists to withhold the names of their informants in investigative work of general interest.

It is the subject of very protective case law on the part of the ECHR.

The European Court of Human Rights, in the judgment Goodwin v. United Kingdom of 2002, stipulates that " 

 ”. 

The

reinforced this right given to journalists to practice the method of infiltration to obtain information.

The legislator therefore enshrines in a text the notion of general interest of being able to inform without risk for the journalist and for his sources.

In 2018, the promulgation of a law on business secrecy worries the profession in a context where

.

Our selection on the subject:

• To listen : 

→ Journalists and whistleblowers: do we need to protect them more?

→ At the Assises du journalisme de Tunis, they talk about Brut Tunisie and "L'Orient-Le Jour"

→ Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize 2021: "This prize belongs to journalists who hold on"

→ Intimidation, threats, assassinations: the difficult independence of Russian journalists

• To read : 

→ Freedom of the press, collateral victim of wars

→ A record of 488 journalists detained worldwide, deplores Reporters Without Borders

→ “I am not ashamed to say that I am afraid”: young journalists facing violence against the profession

→ Journalism: how to tell the world?

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