One of the things that the affair Strauss-Kahn highlighted is typically French attitude that is consumed in the name of respect for privacy: ilNew York Times calls him "The Code of Silence", a form of privacy that is carried to excess which is now under consideration and mea culpa. The Code follows a clear ritual: "A scandal threatens to destroy the reputation of a powerful figure in France.
Politicians say they are shocked. Friends in disbelief. Journalists debate whether or not to investigate rumors and reveal secret things. The dust settles. The status quo returns. The privacy is protected. " So it has always worked and this sudden stop of the head of the IMF in America has created a real shock.
Powerful so powerful that it is thrown in jail without so many respects, translated in handcuffs before a judge and pilloried with no respect for privacy is something entirely new for France. For example, everyone knew the privacy of Mitterrand. When a reporter asked in public about his secret daughter, he put down: "Yes.
It's true. So what? It is not a matter of public interest. " End of debate. But now the arrest of DSK opens new questions and doubts that the private lives of the rich, famous and powerful are indeed off limits to the general public. Pierre Haske, a leading political commentators in France and co-founder of the site Rue89, reaffirms the principle of protection of privacy "that makes us more than the British and Americans.
But we journalists have not done our job properly. We have been complicit in keeping many secrets. And now we have to redefine our role in a more aggressive and say that not all private is private. Other then that right to privacy, but the mea culpa of a press and squatting too consenting to power.
A bad habit that we know well. Italy, however, the variant has an additional feature: it protects the powerful long as it is powerful. When he falls from grace all turn their backs before the cock crows thrice. And there is no need for mea culpas. , May 18, 2011 
Politicians say they are shocked. Friends in disbelief. Journalists debate whether or not to investigate rumors and reveal secret things. The dust settles. The status quo returns. The privacy is protected. " So it has always worked and this sudden stop of the head of the IMF in America has created a real shock.
Powerful so powerful that it is thrown in jail without so many respects, translated in handcuffs before a judge and pilloried with no respect for privacy is something entirely new for France. For example, everyone knew the privacy of Mitterrand. When a reporter asked in public about his secret daughter, he put down: "Yes.
It's true. So what? It is not a matter of public interest. " End of debate. But now the arrest of DSK opens new questions and doubts that the private lives of the rich, famous and powerful are indeed off limits to the general public. Pierre Haske, a leading political commentators in France and co-founder of the site Rue89, reaffirms the principle of protection of privacy "that makes us more than the British and Americans.
But we journalists have not done our job properly. We have been complicit in keeping many secrets. And now we have to redefine our role in a more aggressive and say that not all private is private. Other then that right to privacy, but the mea culpa of a press and squatting too consenting to power.
A bad habit that we know well. Italy, however, the variant has an additional feature: it protects the powerful long as it is powerful. When he falls from grace all turn their backs before the cock crows thrice. And there is no need for mea culpas. , May 18, 2011
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