Last Friday, the media The Incorrect released a compromising video showing journalists Patrick Cohen (France Inter) and Thomas Legrand (Libération, France Inter) in conversation with two Socialist Party officials, Luc Broussy and Pierre Jouvet. In this recording, Thomas Legrand states: "We are doing what is necessary for Dati, Patrick Cohen and me.".
This publication sparked a heated debate. Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, candidate for mayor of Paris and a targeted political figure, called for action from France Inter, while the far right seized on the affair to accuse the journalists of collusion with the Socialist Party.
France Inter suspended Thomas Legrand as a precautionary measure, while Patrick Cohen expressed his support for his colleague, specifying that the meeting had been requested by Socialist leaders to discuss the media coverage of their party.
Patrick Cohen threatens to sue those who released the video
Following this scandal, Patrick Cohen threatened to file a complaint. In an interview with La Tribune Dimanche, the journalist denounced a "theft of private conversation", stating: "A complaint will be filed. We are currently looking into whether it can be extended to all those who took and distributed this video."
However, Patrick Cohen, who is now offended by the hidden camera method, has not always held the same position, particularly when it was used against right-wing politicians...
On February 19, 2018, Patrick Cohen found hidden cameras legitimate.
While Patrick Cohen has stated his intention to file a complaint following the hidden cameras used against him, an archive, unearthed by CNews, could well expose his entire defense before a judge.
As a reminder, in 2018, Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Republicans, was at the heart of a controversy after the broadcast of a recording made without his knowledge during a course he was giving at EM Lyon Business School. In this recording, revealed on February 16, 2018 by the program Daily On TMC, Laurent Wauquiez made virulent and sometimes denigrating remarks about several political figures, including Nicolas Sarkozy, Emmanuel Macron, Gérald Darmanin and Alain Juppé. He notably described the parliamentarians of La République En Marche as "clowns" and claimed that Sarkozy was "wiretapping his ministers."
Following the broadcast of this hidden camera in Daily, Patrick Cohen then praised this method, which he found "legitimate". In the C à vous program of February 19, 2018, Patrick Cohen declared:
"The result, and we heard it, I say it quite firmly, is thanks to the healthy curiosity of a journalist who had the good idea of asking students to see what such an important political figure could say in a university setting. I would like to remind you that it was not an LR political office that was spied on, it was not a secret meeting. A school or university setting is a public place. Of course, the law says that we must not record people without their knowledge, but there is a journalistic approach that seems to me to be entirely legitimate, and the result is very interesting."
A sequence which today makes Patrick Cohen lose all credibility, doubly caught red-handed in manipulation and hypocrisy...
