Brody's Scribbles... Legitimate Journalism Or A New Genre-Police Auxiliary Journalism?

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Apr 10 | Should a Journalist Turn in His Paedophile Sources? That question, according to a story from TIME magazine's Paris Bureau Staff Writer Jeffrey Iverson, is stirring controversy and being debated across the airwaves, news pages and web forums in France since 2.2 million viewers tuned in on Tuesday, April 6 to watch the programme 'Paedophiles:The Predators,' the most recent installment aired by France 2 network's hidden-camera investigative series, Les Infiltrés.

Canadian journalist, Andrew Chung writing from the Quebec bureau of The Star Canada, reports on the episode in question:

Through an undercover, hidden-camera investigation, a journalist from a French production company manages to gain the trust of a pedophile in Montreal. The bearded, corpulent man plugs in a hard drive with 2000 gigabytes of memory and proudly shows his new “friend” his collection of hundreds of thousands of explicit photos. He unapologetically says his behaviour is “in my nature.”

That man is charged with possession of child pornography after the journalist, finished gathering his story, contacts the police.

Good riddance. Another potential child predator off the streets. Who could be against that?

Journalists, in fact. The whole episode, many professional journalists say, is dangerous to their craft, and it has rekindled an ethical debate over their duty to protect sources, and whether they ever should collaborate with police.

Antoine Char, a professor of journalism at the University of Quebec at Montreal, says that in the eyes of the public, there's no problem with the actions of Les Infiltrés, reporter Laurent Richard and his producer, the French press agency Chabalier & Associates Press Agency  (CAPA), who decided they wouldn't protect their sources following their investigation. 

"We knew that if we were witnesses of sexual attacks on minors we would say so," Richard told the French daily Libération newspaper. "We are not going to hide behind our press cards." 

Chung writes that Professor Char, who teaches journalistic ethics, explains that:

“For the most part the public is happy with it because in the eyes of the public, paedophilia must be stopped at any cost, regardless of journalistic ethics. The opinion of professional journalists, in good majority, is that this type of (journalism) must not” take place."

David Nordfors, Co-founder & Executive Director of the Stanford Research Center of Innovation Journalism at Stanford University said that Journalism's first obligation is to the truth. Discussions about Truth and Objectivity in journalism often become questions of journalistic ethics and the trustworthiness of individuals. But journalists are regularly confronted with ethical dilemmas. What if a journalist had information about a planned terrorist act? Or a murder?

Andrew Chung notes: 

The precedent could make it harder for journalists to perform investigations in the future, essential to performing a watchdog role on power centres in society. It’s why journalists are typically willing to go to jail to protect their sources.

For CAPA CEO Hervé Chabalier, the choice was clear: 

"We are journalists, but above all we are citizens. It's my profound conviction we had to do it."

Dominique Pradalié, secretary general of the Paris-based National Union of Journalists, disagrees telling the Agence France-Presse wire service:

"Journalists don't reveal their sources. It's a question of principle."

It's also a relationship protected by law, notes Yves Bordenave of Le Monde. 

"Strictly respecting it allows sources [judges, criminals, politicians] to deliver journalists information, with total assurance they will never be denounced, even under court order," he wrote in the paper. By abandoning this principal, Les Infiltrés has "invented a new genre in the profession: police auxiliary journalism."

For the French Daily newspaper Humanité, this is fundamentally at odds with the most basic tenants of journalistic ethics. "A journalist worthy of the name... forbids his or herself from assuming an imaginary title or identity... and does not confuse his or her role with that of a police officer," the paper said in an editorial, citing the French journalists' code.

The problem simply put, is that by disclosing the sources for their reporting, Richard & his producers violated the sacrosanct trust that is placed in a journalist by his/her sources when reporting a story. While I am not defending any sort of criminal behaviours and in particular definitely not the behaviours of paedophiles, I see the actions undertaken as dangerous and hindering the ability for future investigative pieces to fairly serve the public interest.

In this instance, the correspondent was dead wrong and should have possibly approached this subject matter through more conventional means such as activist organisations or law enforcement rather than exposing his sources to arrest and potential criminal proceedings. This smacks of vigilante journalism and publicity seeking on the part of all involved and has no place in the journalistic profession.