Brétigny-sur-Orge train crash - TF1's "off-the-ball" reporting

A "catastrophe", a "disaster", "apocalyptic" and "scenes remninscent of a war zone" were just some of the words the French media used to describe the terrible train accident that happened last Friday at Brétigny-sur-Orge station, just south of Paris.

And in the rush to report as accurately as possible what had happened only hours before its prime time evening news aired and speculate on the causes behind the derailment that led to the crash, TF1 pulled out all the stops and proved just how attentive to detail its news department really was.

Even though France's rolling news channels such as BFM TV and i>Télé had cameras and reporters  "on the ground" to use the hackneyed so beloved of many a journalist, TF1's news anchor, Claire Chazal, told viewers that they would now be seeing "some of the very first images available from the scene".

And sure enough, there they were: pictures of some passengers being helped out of the wreckage, a view from another platform and rescue workers busy walking around the front of the train.

But wait.

To the eagle-eyed viewer (and there were apparently more than a few) something didn't quite seem to be as it should.

Because that photo of the locomotive on its side (at 40 seconds) with rescue workers surrounding it, bore more than a passing resemblence to one which appeared in the May 9, 2013 edition of Aujourd'hui en France - Le Parisien, to accompany a story in the southern Russian city of Rostov-sur-le-Don on the crash of a freight train carrying chemical and petroleum products

Brétigny-sur-Orge crash, according to TF1 (screenshot from TF1 news)

That's right. It was exactly the same picture.

Well done TF1. Always first to bring us the news as it happens - just apparently elsewhere.




Russia: chemical train explosion injures 17 par euronews-en

A "unifying" moment of radio silence for Jean-François Copé

If you turn on your radio on a Sunday morning in France and tune in to Europe 1 at 10 o'clock, then you'll be able to hear arguably one of the country's most experienced and perhaps political journalists, Jean-Pierre Elkabbach, grilling his guests on "Le Grand Rendez-vous".

Elkabbach is no stranger to many French, having held several high profile posts for television and radio, including president of France Télévisions (December 1993 - June 1996), president of the parliamentary TV channel Public Sénat (December 1999 - April 2009) and directeur général (April 2005) and later president (until June 2008) of the radio station for which he still works, Europe 1.

"Le Grand Rendez-vous" is a sort of "joint venture" if you like, between Europe 1, the popular national daily Aujourd'hui en France, the all-news channel i>Télé and TV5 Monde.

A fellow journalist from each of the three partners sits alongside Elkabbach, but there's no doubting who's in charge.

The programme lasts just one hour, during which the guest - usually a politician (but not always) - goes head-to-head (or should that be the other wary round?) with Elkabbach on the most pressing matters of the day or the past week.

The list of recent guests includes, politicians Michel Sapin, François Fillon and Pierre Moscovici, trade unionist leader Laurent Berger, former CEO of EADS Louis Gallois and Cardinal André Vingt-Trois.

As the whole thing is filmed and available live on the Net, most guests - especially the politicians, keen to preen and aware of the importance of image - have taken to inviting along people of their choice to sit in the audience.

Space is limited by the size of the studio of course, but some politicians cannot resist a show of strength.

Such was the case recently with Jean-François Copé, the president of the centre-right Union pour un mouvement populaire (Union for a popular movement, UMP).

Jean-François Copé (screenshot from Europe 1's "Le Grand Rendez-vous")

You might remember, he was "elected" to that position after the party's internal voting shenanigans last year and the ensuing stalemate with former prime minister François Fillon.

Events have moved on since then. The two men have buried the proverbial hatchet - although it's not sure where - the party split has been "healed" and there are vice-presidents galore from both camps.

And that "bonhomie" among party members was something the ever media-savvy Copé was eager to stress during his one hour with Elkabbach.

Except the seasoned journalist wasn't letting Copé off the hook so easily and at one point, after listening to "unity...yadda, yadda, yadda", "cooperation...yadda, yadda, yadda" and "agreement...yadda, yadda, yadda" for more than long enough, Elkabbach challenged his guest.

He pointed out that all 22 of the party members Copé had invited to sit in the audience while being interviewed, were from his "clan": they had all supported him before, during and after the leadership voting debacle.

Rattling of a list of names of those present, Elkabbach asked, "But where are the (so-called) Fillonists? There's not a single one here," he said, finger raised.

http://www.canalplus.fr/c-infos-documentaires/pid3847-c-la-nouvelle-edition.html

"There's no sign of (Valérie) Pécresse, (Éric) Ciotti not even - excuse me for saying this - François Baroin....how come?" continued Elkabbach.

"What a silence," he exclaimed as Copé took more than a moment to summon his response.

It was a classic...a moment when a usually smug Copé floundered, discovering that he had been well and truly outmanoeuvred

Take a look - at the accompanying video from five minutes and 12 seconds as Copé quite rightly gets his come-uppance.

La Nouvelle Edition du 03/05 - Partie 3

Dominique Strauss-Kahn to return to French politics?

 Oh no!

It's just what French politics needs.

The return of another disgraced dinosaur.

Let's hope it's just idle gossip dreamt up by some bored journalist at Le Figaro desperate to deflect attention from the potential implosion of the opposition centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP).

A piece in Tuesday's edition of Le Figaro suggests that Dominique Strauss-Kahn is preparing to make his return to politics in 2014.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn (screenshot from i>Télé interview September 2012)

DSK isn't thinking about taking to the national political stage, says Le Figaro, rather he's interested in securing the Socialist party's nomination to run for the post of mayor in the town of Sarcelles in the northern suburbs of Paris in the 2014 municipal elections.

Far-fetched?

Well it might be a bit of a stretch with the judicial problems still hanging over him, but as the weekly magazine L'Express points out, DSK has been mayor of the town before (from 1995 to 1997) and we all know a criminal record doesn't necessarily mean the end of a political career in France.

But hang about. Isn't there someone already in the job?

Of course there is - another member of the Socialist party and a close friend of DSK, François Pupponi.

He was contacted by the free daily Metro on Tuesday and and didn't mince his words when asked what he thought about a possible DSK return.

"What's this crap?" he's reported as saying in response to the piece in Le Figaro.

"I don't comment on rumours or bull***t that some journalists make up just to say something."

Oh well. That's telling it like it is...hopefully.

The problem of course with politicians in France (as well as many other countries come to that) is that you can really be certain how sincere they're being - can you?

Anne Sinclair named France's Woman of the Year - really?

A poll carried out for Terrafemina, an online women's magazine, has named Anne Sinclair as France's Woman of the Year.

Sinclair was a "symbol of courage and tenacity in face of the legal difficulties of her husband," the magazine said in announcing the results of the poll carried out on its behalf by CSA (Conseils-Sondages-Analyses).

No kidding.

It would be hard for anyone tuned in to the news in the weeks following the arrest of her husband, former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of course, not to have been impressed by her stoicism (and money) as she "stood by her man".

But French Woman of the Year?

Certainly not as far as the Green's presidential candidate Eva Joly is concerned.

"I find it sad," Joly said in an interview on news channel i>Télé.

"It reflects a view of life and gender relations that's very, very old-fashioned," she continued.

"I find it quite shocking, unbelievable even, that her popularity can be greater than that of a prominent politician such as Christine Lagarde," she added.

Lagarde, France's former finance minister and DSK's successor at the IMF came second in the poll.

Deserved or just too much Tammy Wynette about the outcome? What do you think?

The poll was conducted by telephone on December 6/7.

A representative sample of 1,005 people aged 18 and over were asked to choose from a list of 10 names, two women they considered had made the biggest impact in 2011.

Here, in a screenshot from the survey, are the overall results.

screenshot from PDF file from CSA survey

You can download the full report in PDF format from the CSA website.

French pensioner organises her own "kidnapping" from retirement home

It's a story worthy of the summer months and one that definitely brings a smile to the face.

But at the same time there's surely a serious side to it, as will become clear.

Suzanne Burgain (screenshot from i-Télé report)

It involves a 90-year-old French woman who apparently went "missing" from an old people's home last Thursday.

Except that wasn't quite what had happened.

"We'll help you discover another way of thinking about retirement homes," says the promotional video for the Château de Villemoisson, an establishment set in two hectares of parkland, 20 kilometres south of Paris.



Unfortunately one of the residents doesn't seem to agree.

Suzanne Burgain is a bit wobbly on her pins, and after a fall last May, the 90-year-old caved in to pressure from the rest of her family and agreed to move in to the Château de Villemoisson.

And the retirement home certainly seemed to fit the bill in terms of the professional care and attention it could give her.

But Suzanne didn't quite see things the same way and, according to the national daily Le Parisien, made five separate attempts in less than three months to leave of her own accord - no easy feat as she requires a Zimmer frame to walk even the shortest of distances.

But then she hatched a plan and roped in the assistance of her 20-year-old great grandson Anthony and one of his friends to organise her own "kidnapping" in between a change of shifts at the home.

The alert went out last Thursday after the director of the home, Laurence Imbs, rang the local police to say that Suzanne could no longer be found and shortly before her disappearance a young man had been seen leaving her room.

Police took the call seriously and used tracker dogs to comb the area immediately surrounding the home.

But all the while, as it now transpires, Suzanne was sitting comfortably in the house of one of her granddaughters - Anthony's mother - who was away on holiday.

She couldn't stay where she was of course and finally 'turned herself in" to save Anthony from getting in to any more trouble than he already was by having helped her in the first place.

Château de Villemoisson (screenshot from i-Télé report)

Neither though, seems to show any remorse for what they did.

"She's in great form for her age," Anthony told RTL radio.

"And whatever the consequences, it was and remains an act of love and I have no regrets," he added.

And Suzanne?

Well she remains as stubborn and determined as ever.

"Anthony helped me because he knows exactly how I feel," she said.

"The only thing that interests me is my freedom and to go home - and I fully intend to try to get my way again."

According to Le Parisien, legally, there's nothing the retirement home can do to try to stop her from attempting another "escape".

Suzanne is under no guardianship or trusteeship.

"We cannot hold her against her will, it's not a prison," Imbs told i>Télé.

"All we can do is wait for her closest relative (her daughter) to return from holiday so that we can discuss what to do next."

Lesbian couple beat France's same-sex marriage ban

Same-sex marriage isn't allowed in France but a lesbian couple managed to tie the knot on Saturday all the same.

Newlyweds Stéphanie (left) and Elise (screenshot from BFM TV)

The two women were allowed to say "I do" in a civil ceremony at the Town Hall in the eastern city of Nancy because, legally, one of them is still a man.

As the free daily 20 minutes reports Stéphanie Nicot was actually born Stéphane and although the 59-year-old has undergone a sex change she has refused to provide the documentation to the French authorities to have her gender changed on the register of births, marriages and deaths.

That meant Nancy's deputy mayor, Olivier Husson, was able to perform a ceremony between Stéphanie and her 27-year-old partner Elise that was in his words "both respectful and legal".

"As required by law we checked the status of both partners," he told the all-news channel i>Télé.

"The records showed that the application to marry had been made by a man and a woman," he continued.

"The procureur de la Republique (district attorney's office or public prosecutor) - whose permission was needed - didn't object and so the marriage was allowed to go ahead."

The apparent contradiction of a law which doesn't recognise same-sex marriages but which allowed Saturday's marriage to take place wasn't lost on Nicot, as she told a press conference afterwards.

"Paradoxically in discriminating against us the system has also granted us the most beautiful of gifts," she said.

"The situation is a little crazy but it also serves as a symbol for all the millions of gays and lesbians in France who would like to have the same right (to marry)."

In January France's constitutional council upheld a ban on same-sex marriage ruling that it was "in keeping with the constitution" and that decision means that only parliament can change the law.

Later this week the opposition Socialist party will take advantage of parliamentary time reserved for private members' bills to debate same-sex marriage in the National Assembly.

Claude Guéant - "a minister whispering into the ear of France's far-right Front National"

Not a day seems to go by without the recently-appointed interior minister Claude Guéant making a remark which many are interpreting as an attempt to reach out to potential voters of the far-right Front National (FN).

"He's a minister whispering into the ear of the Front National," is how one prominent Socialist party politician, Jean-Marc Ayrault, described Guéant's latest comments about the need to prevent anyone using the country's services from wearing religious symbols.

Yes Guéant is at it again.

Claude Guéant (screenshot from i>Télé interview)

In the space of a week he has made remarks that have angered the opposition Socialist party - and many others - worried some within his own party, confused and surprised those who've worked close to him over the years and provided a platform for the FN to expound its policies.

After "the French not feeling at home in France" and praising Sarkozy for "leading the crusade in Libya" comes the latest in what some see as a direct appeal to those tempted to vote for the FN.

This time it was the suggestion that religious symbols should be banned in all public services - not only for those working in them, but also those using them.

"Obviously anyone working in a public service shouldn't wear a religious symbols or show any religious preference," he said in an interview on the news and current affairs channel i>Télé on Thursday.

"Nor should those using them," he added.

Guéant tried to cover himself somewhat by saying later that he had mainly been talking about hospitals and in particular cases in which women didn't want to be seen by male doctors.

But as had happened on the previous day with his "crusade" comment, the reactions came thick and fast and once again Guéant was flavour of the day in terms of news reporting.

Most telling of all the reactions though is from someone who knows Guéant well, and indeed worked alongside him for eight years.

Interviewed on Friday morning's news magazine La Matinale on Canal +, Abderahmane Dahmane, president of the democrates musulmans de france and until recently a special advisor to the French president Nicolas Sarkozy in charge of diversity, said he was as confused as anyone by Guéant's remarks.

"I have the impression that the sky is falling in on them," he said in reference to Guéant and Sarkozy, both of whom he said he still considered friends.

"In eight years of working together I never heard a word uttered by Claude Guéant that could annoy anyone. He was always the go-between, the moderator," he continued.

"But now, I don't understand why he's saying what he is. What purpose does it serve?"

Indeed.

And where is Sarkozy in all of this?

All right so he's currently playing "King of the World" as leader of the G20, G8 and the "crusade" against Libya.

But he's also a man used to meddling in all aspects of domestic affairs as he sees fit and reining in ministers whenever they're deemed to be overstepping the mark.

Sarkozy has been strangely quiet.

Perhaps part of the answer for Guéant's apparent change in behaviour and Sarkozy's silence comes in those cantonal elections on Sunday.

Oh yes and there's that debate on laicity set by the governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) for April 5, which the leader of the party Jean-François Copé is organising to "discuss religious practice in France - including Islam - and its compatibility with the country's secular laws."

But there is of course also Sarkozy's poor showing in the opinion polls, the rise of in popularity of the FN leader Marine Le Pen and the fear that some UMP supporters will be attracted to her and her party's policies when it comes to next year's presidential elections.

Recent polls suggest that Sarkozy might not even make it past the first round of those elections.

Has he "unleashed" Guéant on France in an attempt to win over that far-right vote?

Sure looks that way - whatever anyone else is saying - or not saying.

Brother of French hostage in Afghanistan is losing confidence

The brother of one of the two French hostages being held in Afghanistan says he's losing confidence in the French government's ability to secure their release.

Stéphane Taponier and Hervé Ghesquière, staff journalists for the French television channel France 3, were taken captive along with three Afghan colleagues in December 2009 as they were travelling in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province around 120 kilometres northeast of the capital Kabul.

On Friday Taponier's brother, Thierry, told the all-news channel i>Télé that he didn't share the French government's optimism about the release of the two men.

Thierry Taponier (screenshot from Dailymotion audio recording of Europe 1 interview)

He was talking after the broadcast of an audio message apparently from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warning that France would "pay dearly for its policy in Afghanistan and that the release of the hostages would depend on French troops being withdrawn."

"This is a blow to us and comes when we least expected it because just a while ago François Fillion (the French prime minister) told us that he was optimistic about the fate of Stéphane and Hervé," he said.

"Now we're stunned at the difference between the positive things the (French) State is saying and the negative side of the kidnappers," he continued.

"I'm starting to lose confidence in what the government can achieve in Afghanistan, certainly in this case."

Picture of the two French hostages projected on to the Arc de Triomphe on the day marking the first anniversary of their capture (screenshot i>Télé report)

While the French government has at various times issued statements insisting that negotiations for the release of the two men are progressing, their families have by and large been hesitant about talking to the media.

Their silence was broken in December last year when both Taponier's father and brother expressed their frustrations and concerns.

Earlier this month the French prime minister, François Fillion, said that discussions with the kidnappers were "very advanced" and that he thought that there "could only be a positive outcome."

French TV journalist puts colleague in place over death penalty comment

It was a TV moment to treasure, but one many will surely have missed, as a journalist on the all-news French digital channel i>Télé put a colleague firmly in place about his opinions on the death penalty.

i>Télé presenter Julian Bugier (screenshot from Le Post video on Dailymotion)

The two men in question were the co-presenter of the early evening show, Julian Bugier, and Robert Ménard, a columnist on the channel.

And the clear difference in opinion came just after a report on the trial of Thierry Devé-Oglou.

He was the man accused of the brutal murder and attempted rape in 2007 of 23-year-old Anne-Lorraine Schmitt.

On Wednesday a court found Devé-Oglou guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment of which he has to serve at least 22 years, the maximum penalty for a crime of such a nature here in France.

Ménard, the founder of the French-based international non-governmental organisation Reporters sans frontières (Reporters without borders) took a moment at the end of the report to repeat the sort of comment he has made over the years on different occasions; namely his support for the death penalty.


"Julian, we have to regret sometimes that we no longer have the death penalty," Ménard said, bringing about an immediate response from Bugier that he didn't agree.

"Yes, but all the same..." began Ménard, who was quickly interrupted by the presenter who told him, "Nothing justifies the taking of life as far as I'm concerned. Thank you Robert."

Short, sweet and to the point. Exactly how it should be.

Bravo Julian Bugier.

And once again shame on you Robert Ménard, whose organisation (RSF) that fights for press freedom, currently carries an advertisement at the top of its site for Poster for tomorrow that reads "Death is not justice".

Capital punishment was abolished in France in 1981.


Quand Ménard regrette l'abolition de la peine de mort...
envoyé par LePostfr. - L'info video en direct.