RCL 27/28: Jornalismo 200027 Journalism 2000 February 2000

Organized by Nelson Traquina

 

ETHICAL CONFLICT AND INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
Le Monde and the Contaminated Blood Affair

Mark Hunter
American University of Paris

Portuguese

French

This article examines the ethical conflicts that emerged at Le Monde, France's newspaper of record, during the so-called Contaminated Blood Affair in 1989-1992, when it was revealed that high public officials had knowingly sold AIDS-infected blood products to haemophiliacs. The affair could fairly be called France's Watergate; for the first time, investigative reporting revealed a crime that brought down a government.