Carla Bruni gossip shows press divide

INTERNET gossip that Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni are both having affairs received widespread coverage in the UK – but the claims were shrugged off by the French public and completely avoided by the press here.

It began when Le Post journalist Aude Baron saw an anonymous message on social networking site Twitter saying Mrs Bruni would be “the first to congratulate” songwriter Benjamin Biolay on winning two big music awards. She repeated the gossip to her network of online friends, and the rumour spread.

A day later, TV news channel i-Télé signed off a report on Junior Environment Minister Chantal Jouanno winning a karate prize with the remark: “It's not known whether Nicolas Sarkozy has had time to congratulate [her].”

Rumours of the two affairs were briefly mentioned in a blog post on the Journal du Dimanche website, clearly signposted as unverified gossip.

British newspapers then wrongly cited the Journal du Dimanche as an authoritative source for the story.

The Press Association article said the rumours had been “given extra weight” by the JDD. The blog post has since been deleted because the paper said it was “gravely prejudicial to the private lives” of the four named in the story.

L’Express claims a trainee journalist started the rumour to see how easy it was to get a fake story into print. This claim has not been verified either – but if true, it worked well, except in France.

Journalist Jean-Pierre Tailleur says the lack of coverage of such affairs in France is more likely the result of political pressure rather than discretion. France does not rank highly in terms of media freedom.

According to the 2009 press freedom index by Reporters Without Borders, the UK comes 20th out of 175 countries in the world – ahead of France in 43rd.

"The French media are scared but the British press is too aggressive"

French journalists are uncomfortable reporting on politicians’ private lives because of political pressure, says Jean-Pierre Tailleur author of Bévues de Presse, a book on standards in French journalism.

THE Bruni-Sarkozy story has highlighted the blatant divide between the British and French journalistic cultures. The said-to-be quality newspaper The Daily Telegraph put the story on its front page, while in Paris there was a deafening silence.

Why was this? Firstly, French journalists may feel the threat of stricter laws protecting private lives. But a more valid explanation is political pressure, and pastmishaps experienced by high-profile journalists.

In June 2006, Paris Match editor-in-chief Alain Genestar was sacked nine months after the glossy weekly news magazine published a front-page photograph showing Nicolas Sarkozy’s then-wife Cécilia with her lover. Genestar’s departure was blamed on poor circulation figures, but he later said in a book that presidential pressure pushed him out.

Two years later, Airy Routier, a well-known investigative journalist, was blamed for a post on the Nouvel Observateur website alleging that Sarkozy had sent a text message to Cécilia just before his marriage to Carla Bruni, saying: “If you come back, I’ll call it all off.” The problem for Routier was that his disclosure was based on second-hand sources, and he was never able to provide any evidence. The journalist was not supported by his bosses when Sarkozy filed a suit against him.

The Bruni-Sarkozy story has illustrated how uncomfortable French journalism is when covering politicians’ private lives. However it also reveals a lot about the pathetic British journalistic culture – not just because it seemed to be based on a hoax.

The same papers covering this alleged double affair do not care to cover major political events happening in France. What’s more, without their focus on a top model turned first lady, readers would never have heard of Benjamin Biolay, whose talent is often compared to Serge Gainsbourg’s.

Given the choice between French mild journalism conditioned to ignore political scandals and British aggressive reporting, I prefer the first.