On Jan. 6, Tempo reported on ethics scandals enveloping the French media, and how France’s world of journalism has been thrust into a crisis of credibility.
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Focusing on star TV journalist Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, the story explained how he had faked shots of himself asking questions at a Fidel Castro news conference and made it look like an exclusive interview, and how he’d had a very cozy relationship with a politically powerful businessman.
Since then, Poivre d’Arvor has been charged in a Lyon court with “abuse in receiving goods” in connection with the ongoing tax-fraud trial of the right-wing businessman, Pierre Botton, and Thursday was hit with a civil suit filed by a viewer who says the Castro interview constituted “informational fraud.”
The journalist is accused of accepting up to $400,000 in gifts and trips from Botton, who recorded the gifts as legitimate business expenses. Poivre d’Arvor, who presents the nightly news on France’s largest channel, TF-1, figured most prominently on a long list of personalities who Botton said accepted his gifts, allegedly lending their celebrity to his pharmaceutical products as recompense.
But in a four-hour argument before the judge at the end of February, Poivre d’Arvor contested the sum and nature of the alleged gifts, saying they amounted to no more than $30,000, mostly in free plane trips, and that he had been assured they came from Botton’s personal finances. Poivre d’Arvor’s lawyers insisted that he never promoted Botton or his father-in-law, the right-wing mayor of Lyon, Michel Noir.
Poivre d’Arvor had already testified as a witness in Botton’s trial, and his indictment is regarded as unusual. The judge released him on bail of $30,000. A decision is expected at the end of March.