FRANCE: Freedom of the press
Ronald Hilton - 7/6/03
From Paris, Carmen Hegrin writes: "There is a distinction made between analysing and criticising public issues (no real limits there)
and showing pictures about people's private lives.The French press is surely very different from the Anglo-Saxon press in that
respect; but then people don't care much about private lives, except to keep them private. Paris Match, specialized in publishing
pictures, has had many problems. The reaction of the American public to the story of Clinton's affair with Monica made the French
public laugh. thinking Americans were crazy to impeach a President for a love story! In comparaison, the story of Mitterrand's
daughter was a "secret de Polichinelle": everybody knew about it, and it only came out in the press when Mitterrand wanted it to
come out, and even then it was a non-story". RH: Why did Mitterrand want it to come out?
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