How “L’Equipe” was able to interview Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai


Heloise Goy with Alexis Patri
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10:36 a.m., February 07, 2022

INTERVIEW

“Where is Peng Shuai?”. Last November, the newspaper The Team alerted Peng Shuai to the fate. This Chinese tennis player had accused a former Chinese leader of rape on social networks. His message was quickly deleted, and since then the player was missing and the French daily had dedicated its front page to her. She then simply reappeared in unauthenticated photos. Monday, the newspaper The Team devotes its front page to the exclusive interview that its journalists Sophie Dorgan and Marc Ventouillac obtained with Peng Shuai.

“The delegation of The Team who went to the Olympic Games in Beijing made a request for an interview with Peng Shuai from the Chinese Olympic Committee”, explains to Europe 1 Jérôme Cazadieu, the editorial director. “We did not believe it so much, and finally they came back to us to say that they were in agreement, if it was within the framework of an interview. We agreed on the condition that they did not ask for a proofreading of the interview.”

Peng Shuai, “not free to move around and express themselves”

“I think they wanted more of a print medium, which could give enough space,” adds Jérôme Cazadieu to our microphone. “I think we’re considered a serious, if not very serious, medium by the IOC. And I believe the other media haven’t made that move and we’ve taken that space.”

In the pages of the daily, the player evoked a “huge misunderstanding”: she claims to have never said that anyone had subjected her to any sexual assault and explains that her life has not changed. She also spoke of health difficulties that would jeopardize her career.

According to Jérôme Cazadieu, the two journalists were not fooled by Peng Shuai’s remarks. “It’s a special exercise, because you meet someone who we know does not have freedom of movement and expression. And you ask her questions that are very difficult for her to answer” , he recalls. “I would say that we saw in her body language and her looks both times when she went a little off, especially whenever we asked about the case. And times when she was very warm, almost in a form of appeal, especially in her gaze and through her ‘thank you’ at the end.”

On Twitter, journalist Sophie Dorgan shared the article, commenting, “Just one word, just one: I think very much of Peng Shuai.”



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