In the Libyan financing trial of the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, after extremely heavy requisitions issued on March 27, 2025, the case was finally publicized.
These requisitions weigh heavily in this sudden media coverage. The national financial prosecutor’s office has required Seven years in prison against the former president, 300,000 euros fine and five years of ineligibility. The words used by prosecutors also worn. They portrayed the former head of state as the real ” sponsor “Of a” corruption “,” inconceivable, incredible, indecent », Knotted with Muammar Gaddafi.
However, while the trial started on January 6, 2025, it was only a very small media coverage in the long term if it is compared to other trials. The company Aday, which scrutinizes the media, counted 7,800 articles or content linked to this trial in the French media, half as much as Dominique Pelicot trials on the rapes of Mazan (14,981) or on the Pedocriminal Joël Le Souarnec (14 199).
Why this reluctance with regard to such a political trial?
First, there is the fact that the case was revealed by an outsider, Mediapartin 2011. However, this newspaper was sometimes suspected of being of bias, which Sarkozy maintained by dealing ” pharmacy And by pursuing it for false and use of false, without gaining cause. Then, the fact that it was able to appear complex to audiovisual media which must summarize the facts in two minutes.
However, as the journalist of Mediapart Yunnès Abzouz notes, the case shows ” crime in white collar, this social crime which feeds on media indifference ». With funny details, such as the safe of Claude Guéantallegedly rented to store Sarkozy speeches.
An ex-president close to the media
Media links with Nicolas Sarkozy are to be taken into account. He’s a friend of Vincent Bolloréfrom Martin Bouygues or Arnaud Lagardère, and necessarily, their media can have biases, discomfort or silences. Where CNews speaks ” judicial », TF1 prefers to follow the Gérard Depardieu trial or the investigation into the disappearance of little Émile. As for Figarowho had cock in 2011 an interview with Gaddafi where he declared that he had given funds to Sarkozy for his campaign, the newspaper does the minimum service. Its shareholder Dassault had obtained a contract to sell Rafale in Libya.
And then there are the media that was involved in the defense of Sarkozy, either by making him come on set, or by lending the hand to manipulations like the false retraction of Ziad Takkieddine in Paris Match or on BFMTV. “” We prefer the force of a denial to the brutality of the facts “Said Fabrice Arfifrom Mediapart, recalling that there had been no coverage of News Magazine on this case.