France has been accused of an unacceptable attack on press freedom after the arrest of an investigative journalist who reported on leaked documents that alleged French intelligence was used to target civilians in Egypt, reports The Guardian.
Police arrived at the home of Ariane Lavrilleux at dawn on Tuesday and took her into custody after searching her property. The news agency AFP reported that she was being questioned by agents of the DGSI, France’s domestic intelligence agency.
Lavrilleux wrote a series of articles published on the investigative website Disclose in November 2021 that were based on hundreds of leaked classified documents. These allegedly showed how information from a French counter-intelligence operation in Egypt was used by Cairo for “a campaign of arbitrary killings” against smugglers operating along the Libyan border.
Disclose described the arrest as “an unacceptable attack on the secrecy of [press] sources”. The Société des Journalistes at France Télévisions and Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) also condemned the targeting of the journalist. “We fear that the DGSI’s actions will undermine the secrecy of the sources,” RSF said.
Virginie Marquet, the lawyer for Lavrilleux and Disclose, said they had only published information of public interest and condemned the arrest.