Pierre Péan

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Pierre Péan
Born(1938-03-05)5 March 1938[1]
Sablé-sur-Sarthe, France[1]
Died25 July 2019(2019-07-25) (aged 81)[2]
Argenteuil, France[2]
NationalityFrench
OccupationJournalist

Pierre Péan (5 March 1938 – 25 July 2019) was a French

investigative journalist
and author of many books concerned with political scandals.

Books, investigations and controversies

In 1983 Pierre Péan was the first to break the story of the Great Oil Sniffer Hoax in Le Canard enchaîné.

In his 1990 book L'Homme de l'ombre ("Man of the Shadows"), Péan went into great detail about

libel
.

In 1994, he published Une jeunesse française: François Mitterrand (A French Youth: François Mitterrand). The book is a biography covering the life of François Mitterrand from 1934 to 1947. It became a best-seller, and started a controversy over the ambiguous behaviour of Mitterrand with respect to both Marshal Philippe Pétain and the French Resistance during the occupation of France by Germany. Péan himself was unhappy about the press coverage of certain aspects of the book and considered the interpretations of some commentators to be unfair to Mitterrand.[3]

In Manipulations Africaines (African Manipulations), published in February 2001, Péan investigated the sabotage of UTA Flight 772. He alleged that evidence pointed to Iran and Syria (acting through the Hezbollah movement), but that due to political context (notably the Gulf War), France and the United States tried to put the blame on Libya. He accuses judge Jean-Louis Bruguière of deliberately neglecting proof of Lebanon, Syria and Iran being involved to pursue only the Libyan trail. He also accused Thomas Thurman, a Federal Bureau of Investigation explosives expert, of fabricating false evidence against Libya in both the Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 sabotages.[4][5]

In 2003, Péan published La Face cachée du Monde (The Hidden Face of

ethics. In particular, they alleged that Jean-Marie Colombani and Edwy Plenel
had, amongst other things, shown partisan bias (concerning Corsica, for example) and engaged in financial dealings that compromised the paper's independence. These findings remain controversial, but attracted much attention in France and around the world at the time of their publication, not least because they impugned the analytical reliability of a paper whose emphasis is precisely on analysis and not simply straight reporting. Le Monde's subsequent difficulties have been attributed in part to this book.

In 2005, he published Noires fureurs, blancs menteurs. Rwanda, 1990-1994 (Black Furies, White Liars. Rwanda, 1990-1994) about the

revisionist attempt to alter the accepted history of the Rwanda genocide with a false comparison.[6]

In 2008, Pierre Péan wrote The World According to K, another controversial book, on the supposed ties between Bernard Kouchner - French foreign minister - and African dictators. Péan claimed two consultancies run by associates of Kouchner were paid nearly $6m (£4.1m; €4.7m) by the governments of Gabon and Congo for reports that were written by him. According to Péan, some of this money was paid by the two African governments after Kouchner became foreign minister in May 2007. Kouchner denied the accusations of conflict of interest, blaming the allegations on "circles" who hated him and pointing to differences with Péan over who should be blamed for the Rwandan genocide.[7] Bernard Kouchner countered by accusing Pierre Péan of antisemitism, provoking a scandal in French press.[8] This book is not only about Africa, but also about Kosovo, and how Kouchner used to behave there when he was United Nations delegate. Kouchner never answered about the facts Péan revealed in his book, and preferred to keep silent.

Case dismissed

In September 2008, Pierre Péan was put on trial in

Hutus
. He said it made investigating Rwanda "an almost impossible task".

Some 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in 1994.[9] A French rights group, SOS Racisme, filed the lawsuit against Péan in October 2006 and was backed by the public prosecutor. The case related to four pages in Péan's book "Noires Fureurs, Blancs Menteurs" ("Black Furies, White Liars"), published in 2005.[10]

The trial took place from 23 to 25 September 2008. Among the witnesses testifying on Péan's behalf were two former French government ministers: the

psychotherapist
Esther Mujawo-Keiner, accused him of "playing with words that can kill", to which Péan, without apologising for the words that he used, replied: "I bow down in front of the suffering of the victims."

In November 2008, when the case against Péan was dismissed, his lawyer said the verdict was "a victory for freedom of expression, and for a real exchange of ideas on what is a very difficult subject." SOS Racisme said they would appeal against the court's decision.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b "Né à Sablé, Pierre Péan reçoit la Légion d'honneur". Ouest-France. 1 January 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b Le Monde avec AFP (26 July 2019). "Mort de Pierre Péan, écrivain et journaliste d'investigation". Le Monde. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  3. ^ (in French) An analysis of Péan's revelations on Mitterrand
  4. ^ (in French) Les preuves trafiquées du terrorisme libyen
  5. ^ Pierre Péan (2001). "African Manipulations: Tainted Evidence of Libyan Terrorism". Retrieved 2009-01-24.
  6. ^ (in French) Seminar on Rwanda held in Paris Archived 2006-11-16 at archive.today
  7. ^ "Kouchner hits out at book claims". BBC News. 2009-02-04.
  8. ^ (in French) Dominique de Villepin défend Bernard Kouchner, "un homme honnête".
  9. ^ "French author in dock over Rwanda". BBC News. 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
  10. ISBN 2-84205-929-8
    .
  11. ^ "Pierre Péan relaxé" (in French). Radio France Internationale. 2008-11-07. Retrieved 2009-01-26.

See also

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