Here, and over at Roy Greenslade's Guardian blog,
there has lately been talk of how ritualistic prejudice againt the
press leads to grotesque libel awards that (should) bring shame to the
countries and courts in which they are made.
Not everyone agrees with me or the similar, though hardly identical,
views expressed by my fellow blogger.
But turning to Papon, let us start with the proposition that his
exposure as a war criminal was no bad thing.
That will not seem too controversial a point to most of those who stray
into Salut!.
But how did that exposure come about, given that Papon proceeded from
being the second most senior French official in wartime Bordeaux to a
very prominent post-war career in public life (though that career was
scarcely without disgrace)?
It came about because the press (newspapers) did what it is - they are -
best at.
In May 1981, France's satirical weekly, Le Canard Enchainé, revealed
documents establishing Papon's culpability in the deportation of nearly
1,700 Jews from Bordeaux to the Drancy internment camp on the outskirts
of Paris between 1942 and 1944. Many of these unfortunates went from
Drancy to Auschwitz. Very, very few came home. As the Allied victory
neared, Papon saw what was coming and switched sides, reinventing
himself as a Resistance informer and later collecting an honour from
General de Gaulle for his pains.
Ultimately, he was jailed for 10 years for crimes against humanity. He
fled to Switzerland but was returned to serve all of three years of his
sentence.
As a self-confessed liberal on penal issues, I have no real complaint
about his release in 2002 on health grounds. But Papon goes to his
grave having never found the courage or humility to admit to his
wrongdoing.
He insisted to the end that he was the blameless victim, as (with
variations to the theme) is so often the case among those who dislike
how they portrayed in newspapers, of "unprecedented media pillorying
made up of lies, insults and infamy".
Great stuff, Le Canard Enchainé! I have said the French press is more
decent but also more dull than the British variety, but here it managed
to be both immensely decent and a long way from dull.
And so it is on the other side of the Channel. The press, from ruthless
proprietors to individual journalists, makes plenty of mistakes.
Sometimes the mistakes are serious and, much more rarely, they have
serious consequences.
But often, the press is punished disproportionately for its mistakes;
the rich, powerful and merely fortunate would be horrified at how low
I'd cap libel awards, while insisting on due - OK, French-style -
prominence for apologies or corrections.
And almost always, the press attracts far less praise than it deserves
when it acts in its own loftier traditions.
Leave aside the unmasking of war criminals or the spotlights trained on
government and corporate injustices.
For every unfairly criticised politician, pop star and supermodel,
there are scores of ordinary people who have been assisted, by local
and national newspapers alike, towards some semblance of fair treatment
in their David vs Goliath battles with gas boards, insurance companies,
banks and other private or public bodies.
Unfashionable, especially on a blog, and probably unnecessary since I
no longer have a newspaper job, but true.
Labels: Auschwitz, Drancy, Jews, Le Canard Enchaine, newspapers, Papon, press
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