Wife of

She’s well cheesed off with the recent media fascination for always defining her as “wife of” and Christine Ockrent just ain’t going to stand for it any longer. Quite right too.

Ockrent is one of the best-known journalists here in France. She has more than 35 years of experience and she was the first woman to anchor state television France 2’s prime time 8pm news slot.

So it was no surprise when the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, appointed her as the director general of the newly created holding company France Monde. She’ll be the number two to the new company’s president Alain de Pouzilhac

France Monde will group together Radio France Internationale, the generalist television channel TV5-Monde and the rolling news broadcaster France 24.

The 64-year-old, Belgian-born Ockrent has in her time also been a top editor at the weekly news magazine, “L’Express” and since 1990 has presented a number of critically acclaimed political programmes on France 3, the state run regional television channel.

Over the years her face and voice have regularly popped up for commentaries on both CNN and BBC and she also spent 10 years in the United States where she collaborated on the CBS news magazine 60 minutes. So there’s no doubt that she has the track record and proven professional clout to justify her appointment

Oh yes, and she is also the wife of - or perhaps better put, her husband is - the current foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner.

And that’s the issue that has been making waves here since her appointment was made public, and is one that’s unlikely to go away.

Without openly saying so some (mainly men) within the profession claim that Ockrent’s appointment smacks of nepotism. How can a husband-and-wife team at the same time hold two of the most important jobs in representing France abroad?

Ockrent sees no conflict of interests though. Her reasons for taking the job, she says, are purely professional, and she cites her track record as proof that she’s up to it.

She’s also tired of women of her generation having to suffer the labelling of “wife of” even when they’ve a wealth of qualifications and experience in their own right. “Quite honestly,” she says. “I find it unjust and humiliating and I’m waiting for the moment when we start talking about men as ‘husbands of’, and when we ask them to sacrifice their identities, abilities and careers.”

Ockrent retained her job at France 3 even when Kouchner accepted the post of foreign minister. But it proved to be the exception rather than the rule.

Women journalists who have either been married to, or lived with, prominent politicians have never had an easy time her in France. Their relationships have often brought into question their journalistic objectivity and they have either been forced to resign or eased gently to one side.

Former prime time weekend television presenter, Béatrice Schönberg, for example had to step down after she married Jean-Louis Borloo – a prospective future prime minister at the time and now number two in the government. Similarly, Marie Drucker over one France 3 found herself bumped off the main news because of her relationship with the then overseas and later briefly interior minister, François Baroin.

Ockrent’s appointment is proof perhaps that slowly France is waking up to the fact that it just ain’t always on to define a woman by her partner.

JS