Paris website robbery stokes spying on media fears
A controversial French website has had its premises burgled for the second time this year, in a further twist in a saga which has seen news media accusing the presidency of spying on reporters
Issued on: Modified:
More than 20 computers were stolen, along with other equipment, from the offices of the Rue89 website overnight in a break-in discovered on Sunday morning. Other equipment was destroyed.
The burglars broke down the office door but the site says there is no indication of how they entered the building, which is managed by the Paris city council and houses several other small businesses.
Rue89, which specialises in political revelations, has been burgled once already this year and twice in 2007.
Earlier this month the muckraking paper Le Canard Enchainé accused the Elysée presidential palace of setting up a special cell to spy on journalists, an accusation that the Elysée described as insane.
The charge followed the robbery of computers belonging to three journalists covering the Bettencourt scandal, which has led to accusations of corruption against ministers and President Nicolas Sarkozy himself.
Sarkozy adviser Claude Guéant has sued the Mediapart website, one of whose reporters was among the robbery victims, for accusing him of organising the illegal surveillance of journalists.
"Even if this comes in a difficult political context ... it is not possible at the moment to say whether this is a straigtforward criminal break-in, or an attempt to get hold of certain information or just to intimidate us," Rue89 comments in its report of the robbery.
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning
Subscribe