Reality TV

It was not so much the force of Monday morning’s dawn raid by police in the Parisian suburb of Villiers-le-Bel that had the headline writers scribbling for fury. It was more the fact that they were accompanied by a virtual armada of journalists, all of whom had been tipped off as to what was about to happen.

More than 1,000 police took part in the sweep to target the ringleaders of last November’s riots, which left more than 100 officers injured after they came under attack from Molotov cocktails and gunfire. That unrest occurred after two teenagers died when their scooter collided with a police car.

While many here in France welcomed the police action, there were more than a few voices raised in alarm at the fact that it had received media saturation as it happened.

The chairman of the Socialist party, François Hollande was quick to condemn the unprecedented media presence as “unacceptable in a major democracy such as France.” And he was joined in his concern by both fellow party member Segolene Royal, last year’s defeated candidate in the presidential run-off, and the leader of the centre-right Mouvement Démocrate, François Bayrou.

Royal suggested that allowing cameras to cover police operations had been a way of trying to influence public opinion ahead of next month’s local elections, by spreading fear.

Somewhat hypocritically perhaps, the media also concentrated on the issue of how come journalists had been in on the action. Readers, viewers and listeners were tantalised with endless questions as to who had leaked information of the raids ahead of time. But of course, all in the name of professional integrity those same journalists simultaneously refused to divulge their sources. Quite right too, after all it keeps a story rolling.

The minister of the interior, Michèle Alliot-Marie (affectionately termed MAM by many here in France), of course preferred to concentrate on what she stressed was the success of the action – allegedly based on tip-offs from paid informers. The police took 35 people into custody and reportedly have leads on several others they suspect of arson and attempted murder. But all the same MAM has promised to launch an enquiry into who informed the media.

Perhaps the main lesson to be learned here is that there is no longer a need for French television channels in the future to buy the rights for imported detective series. After all they now have “authorised” access to insider information and the chance to record the action as and when it happens in real time.