'Leaks’ in France turn into floods

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 21

'Leaks’ in France turn into floods

The French radio commentator, Yvan Levai, lifted his phone and, before he could dial a number, found he was talking to the wife of the newspaper columnist, JeanFrancois Kahn. This was odd because she had not dialled a number either, and crossed lines are rare in Paris. However, the two journalists were more amused than surprised. They concluded that their phone tapper had slipped up and left them coupled together instead of plugged into his machine. Phone tapping is something that a French regime arriving in power swears it will never do and later swears it is not doing. But the temptation to listen in on the lines of political opponents and journalists has in the past proved irresistible. The Socialists foreswore phone tapping with special fervour, but President Mitterrand has returned from a successful tour of the United States to find his capital in the grip of a severe attack of espionnite — spy fever. Gaston Defferre, the Minister of the Interior, was hunting leaks, moles, high-ranking police officials who talk too much, and journalists who know more than they should. So the press hit back with charges that the Government had become paranoid about secrecy and that phone taps were the unavowed source of some of its mysterious accusations. When the Socialists were in opposition they were delighted by the regular flow of confidential and compromising documents to the satirical weekly “Le Canard Enchaine.” But in government it ceases to be amusing to find the secret warning of the police prefect, Guy Fougier, that the Paris police force was dangerously understaffed, appearing as the cover

story of the magazine “Le Point.” Since they came to power the Socialists have been made aware of a strong Right-wing current in the police force working against them. Purges have been made of senior officials in an effort to get men of unquestionable loyalty into the top police posts. Commissaire Jacques Genthial, head of the crime squad, has been given a “punishment-promotion” to an obscure, better-paid post. “He was a good policeman,” Gaston Defferre announced on TV, “but there were too many leaks in his department.” The next day the police prefect closed down the press office in the Quai des Orfevres for agency correspondents accredited to the police. The office had been in existence since the early years of the century. . The storm that followed united? the press from Right to Left and

From ROBIN SMYTH in Paris

all its unions. President Mitterrand, who has come home to face much more serious questions such as the loss of 20,000 jobs in the steel industry, could well have done without this unnecessary confrontation.

Claude Estier, editor of the Socialist mouthpiece “L’Unite,” and a friend of the President, warned in his editorial: “No past government has profited from blaming the press. A Left-wing Government should remember this and quickly adopt a different attitude.” What major indiscretion was Commissaire Genthial held to have committed? And how was it discovered? According to “Le Monde” such questions put the Government in an embarrassing position because the case against the head of the crime squad was drawn mainly from tapped phone conversations. Gaston Defferre insisted to the Socialist “Le Nouvel Observateur” that he had forbidden all phone tapping at the Ministry of the Interior except in cases of major crime or espionage. But Opposition politicians, police officials, and journalists do not appear to be convinced. They have become extremely guarded on the phone. One or two say they have received secret warnings that their calls are being recorded. Meanwhile, Mr Defferre discovered that all the leaks were not in police headquarters. A confidential letter which he had written in February to Louis Mermaz, speaker of the National Assembly, has been printed in full in the Right-wing “Hebdo.” Said the Socialist “Le Matin”: “This is no longer just a matter of a leak; it’s a waterway.” — Copyright — London Observer Service.