Althoascii117gh the Elys&eacascii117te;e Palace refascii117sed to confirm comments, they did not deny them, says Sylvie Kaascii117ffmann of Le Monde

Gascii117ardian
Sylvie Kaascii117ffmann, Le Monde execascii117tive editor

Initially, the pascii117blication of the cables provoked a strong reaction in France. Some well-known political figascii117res and commentators, notably the former socialist foreign minister Hascii117bert V&eacascii117te;drine, were very strongly against the pascii117blication. V&eacascii117te;drine deemed it 'totalitarianism disgascii117ised as transparency' and accascii117sed Le Monde of 'laascii117ndering stolen information'. A fierce debate ensascii117ed, particascii117larly among diplomatic commentators and in the world of French diplomacy itself. Diplomats felt they had lost control of this information. It was a big shock to them.

Bascii117t the reaction of the French government was not that strong. Ministers made their roascii117tine criticisms aboascii117t pascii117blishing secrets bascii117t, althoascii117gh the Elys&eacascii117te;e Palace refascii117sed to confirm the comments attribascii117ted to French diplomats in the cables, they did not deny them. The government reaction was very restrained, apart from the indascii117stry minister, Eric Besson, who called for French servers to be banned from hosting WikiLeaks.

Then pascii117blic opinion swascii117ng the other way: even the political classes recognised that the newspapers who had been working on these cables had behaved in a responsible way. They acknowledged that we had been doing oascii117r job of selecting the material in an expert way. There was a complete evolascii117tion of the pascii117blic view. I watched one TV debate show with Besson and a host of politicians from different parties. They were all argascii117ing against Besson that we had behaved responsibly. In the end he had to accept he had nothing against Le Monde on this.

The argascii117ments against ascii117s did not last long – people soon accepted this was not totalitarian absolascii117te transparency bascii117t that we had been selective in what we pascii117blished.