The media war over privacy

At the heart of the debate: DSK. © Guillaume Paumier

Known for his womanising ways, the man they call DSK, also a former student of Lycée de Monaco, has suffered a monumental fall from grace after being accused of trying to rape a chambermaid in a private suite at the Sofitel hotel.

Strauss-Kahn pleades not guilty in New York

The former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn pleaded not guilty to seven counts including attempted rape in New York yesterday.

In a hearing that took less than five minutes, the former Socialist party frontrunner, dressed formally in a dark suit, denied all the charges brought against him.

He is accused of sexually assaulting a 32-year-old hotel maid at the Sofitel hotel, close to Times Square on the 14th of May.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, allegedly trapped the hotel maid in his suite at the luxury hotel and forced her to perform oral sex on him. The hotel worker who is originally from Guinea in West Africa, managed to flee the room, after the politician tried to remove her underwear.

“My client is standing up for her dignity as a woman. She's standing up for her self-respect as a woman. And she is standing up for all women and children around the world who have been sexually assaulted or sexually abused and are too afraid to say something,” Kenneth Thompson, prosecuting said.

Benjamin Brafman, who is defending Strauss-Kahn told reporters after the hearing that he believes that the ex-International Monetary Fund chief will be found not guilty. “I don’t think for a moment that my client is capable of doing what he is accused of,” Brafman said.

Strauss-Kahn will remain under house arrest and will next appear in court on the 18th of July.

A media frenzy

While the full fallout of the scandal will only be known once it comes to trial on the 18th of September, the controversy has already whipped the media up into a frenzy and has highlighted some fundamental differences between the way the French and UK/US media operate.

Since the case began, both the British and American press have criticised their French counterparts for their lack of 'western libertarianism' - a principle that upholds liberty, especially freedom of expression and action - in their coverage.

For the British press, in particular, sticking to this ideology is an important part of fulfilling the role of making the government accountable to all its citizens.

In France it has been said that this philosophy has been lacking and certain common practices, which have been highlighted by the DSK story, have prompted concern about the political pressures placed on the presse française.

The influence exerted by the State on the 'free press' has been a subject of debate since 2010 when the Guardian reported Sarkozy had a strong influence on the takeover of Le Monde.

Furthermore, strict privacy and libel laws imposed on the press help to keep them controlled and work in favour of those in power. People tend to believe that whatever is not in the public eye must not be important.

It has also been suggested that politics in the French media is represented only by the most squeaky clean and sophisticated diplomats and ministers.

According to British critic, Peter Gumbel, in France a politician's public standing relates to his professional dealings and not to his private affairs.

In Britain, it is commonly considered that a politician's integrity is represented as much by his personal life and not only his official one.

Gumbel concluded that it was perhaps a result of the Catholic tradition that what happens in private stays private, which has the consequence of protecting dodgy officials

With the DSK story, there is the extra complication that in the French political class, sexual harassment is sometimes regarded as a compliment to the woman and and that the shame in a case of sexual assault is carried by the victim not by the purpertrator.

As the phone tapping and superinjunction scandals continue to make waves across the Channel, the debate surrounding how much public figures should be protected and how much the press should pry into their private lives is now at the top of the media agenda.

Ade Adeyinka and Tom Donnelly