France

[FR] France 2’s  Les Infiltrés Programme Makes Headline News

IRIS 2009-1:1/19

Aurélie Courtinat

Les Infiltrés is a discussion programme based on reporting carried out exclusively using concealed cameras aimed at “gaining access to information revealing dysfunctions of French society that are being kept secret, by means of ‘infiltration’ by a journalist” that has a keen following among the public but is less appreciated by professionals. After the national syndicate of journalists had been disparaging about the method used, recalling the specific features of public-sector audiovisual services and the ethical principles that require journalists to make use of this type of procedure only on an exceptional basis, a celebrity magazine applied to the courts for a ban on broadcasting one of the Les Infiltrés programmes made on its premises. The magazine invoked invasion of privacy and violation of the right to their image of its employees filmed by a journalist claiming to be a trainee on placement, and referred the matter to the regional court in Paris under the urgent procedure. The court rejected the application, not on the merits of the case but because the applicants did not provide proof of any manifest danger resulting from the broadcasting of these images that would cause them irreversible prejudice that could not be made good by their being awarded damages at a later date. The court was therefore unable to act on the application under the urgent procedure. Thus there is still no unanimous response to the sensitive issue of the systematic use of concealed cameras in television programmes.