The court of Nanterre condemned, Wednesday, July 6, the State for an attempted search carried out in 2019 in the premises of Mediapart in the context of the Benalla case. According to the judgment of the court, consulted by Agence France-Presse (AFP), this procedure undermined freedom of expression and the secrecy of sources. “The contested search was neither necessary in a democratic society nor proportionate to the objective pursued within the meaning of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights [CEDH] » on freedom of the press, he said.
The judges consider that this search “therefore constituted an interference with the freedom of expression […] all the more serious since a risk of breaching the secrecy of sources can only be conceived in exceptional circumstances..
10,000 euros to cover legal costs
Assigned by Mediapartthe State was ordered to pay the investigation site one euro in “full reparation for his damage”, to which are added 10,000 euros pursuant to Article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure (legal costs), with an order for the provisional execution of the judgment. The Nanterre court, however, rejected the request for publication on the website of the Ministry of Justice requested by Mediapart.
On January 31, 2019, Mediapart published sound clips of a conversation between the former Elysée official Alexandre Benalla and the former employee of En Marche!, Vincent Crase, dating from July 26, four days after their indictment in the case of the violence of 1is May 2018 and in violation of their judicial review.
The Paris prosecutor’s office had, in the following days, opened an investigation for “unlawful possession of devices or technical devices likely to allow the interception of telecommunications or conversations” et “invasion of privacy”. In this context, two prosecutors and three police officers had attempted to search the premises of Mediapartto get the recordings, an initiative strongly denounced by the investigation site, several media and the opposition.
“The press is a place where one does not go with impunity”
For the Nanterre court, these investigations “necessarily imply access to the medium and any metadata that may allow, directly or indirectly, the identification of the source”leading “the risk, doubtless reduced with regard to the announced objective but nevertheless conceivable, of accidentally revealing other sources”.
“In view of the nature of the freedom exercised and the infringement of one of its pillars, the disproportionality adopted implies in itself the existence of abnormal, special and serious prejudice”say the judges.
At the time, the president and co-founder of the media, Edwy Plenel, recalled that before the search attempt Mediapart had undertaken to deliver a copy of the recordings to justice, which the site did on February 4, 2019. “We welcome this historic decision, which enshrines the freedom to inform and reminds the judicial authorities that the press is a place where we do not go with impunity”reacted the lawyer of MediapartMe Emmanuel Tordjman.
“Like freedom of expression, the media has protection and can only be touched with care and proportionality”he welcomed. “By sanctioning the abuse of state power, [le jugement] recalls the vital necessity, in a democracy, of an independent judiciary and a free press”reacted, on his side, Edwy Plenel.