Gauthier Delomez
On January 11, TF1’s 8 p.m. news broadcast exclusive images of little Maëlys, aboard the car of the main accused Nordahl Lelandais. An investigation was then opened for violation of professional secrecy. On Europe 1, the head of the police-justice service of the first channel responded to the accusations.
Did TF1 go too far in the Maëlys affair? On January 11, the 8 p.m. news broadcast exceptional images from a CCTV camera which showed the little girl in the car of Nordahl Lelandais, the main accused. The mention “Document TF1” appeared on these images, and the channel had also carried out a reconstruction of the murder. An investigation for breach of professional secrecy has been opened by the Grenoble prosecutor’s office. Sarah-Lou Cohen-Bacri, head of the police-justice service of the first channel, reacted on the show Media culture
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“The investigation is not aimed directly at us”
“We take note of the opening of this investigation. It is an investigation that does not directly target us. It is open for violation of professional secrecy, and we are not subject to this professional secrecy”, defended Sarah -Lou Cohen-Bacri at the microphone of Europe 1, before continuing: “(This investigation) targets the source who, potentially, was able to give us these documents. Justice will do its job. We obviously regret (the opening of the ‘investigation)”.
Also invited to the Culture media programme, the head of the police-justice service of the Parisian, Damien Delseny, affirms that the daily would “probably” have also broadcast these images if he had had the exclusivity. “We always ask ourselves questions when we retrieve sensitive documents from sensitive files, but our job is to get these documents, information. We can ask ourselves a whole host of questions, but yes, we would probably have published it”, indicates the head of the police-justice service of the Parisian on Europe 1.