The importance of journalism and information

Welcome to Défense Zone, the podcast that covers defence and security issues through interviews with service personnel, members of law enforcement, political figures and entrepreneurs.

The aim of this audio programme, available on all online podcast platforms, is to open the doors of a usually rather secretive world to the general public, in order to prompt reflection on questions that concern us all, whether political, geopolitical, economic or more broadly societal.

In previous episodes, we looked closely at communication issues from an institutional point of view. This time, we are going over to the other side to tackle the question of information and journalism with Franck Cognard, a France Info journalist and defence specialist.

Introductions

His career as a journalist

Franck Cognard, 52, is a graduate of the Bordeaux School of Journalism and has worked in the profession since 1993. His career began with freelance work on fixed-term contracts at Radio France between 1993 and 1999. He then signed a permanent contract and worked on the police/justice desk of the same broadcaster, covering court cases, trials, organised crime and news stories. After 15 years in this department, he became editor-in-chief at France Inter. He held this post for three years, then felt the need to “get back out into the field” after a period of “seeing only journalists, to commission stories and sign off stories”. France Info was looking for a defence correspondent and he seized the opportunity: “starting again from scratch at 47 was one hell of a kick up the backside,” he admits. He does not, however, feel he took a step down, simply that he is “continuing his career in different posts”. He enjoys being back in the field: “I wanted to see people, see something else, see the country,” says the journalist, who could no longer imagine carrying on in an office with headphones on, in front of a screen.

The defence beat

Franck did his military service at Air Base 102 in Dijon. As a recorder in the control tower, he logged aircraft take-offs and landings three days a week, sometimes at night. This schedule left him time to work at Radio France Bourgogne on the side. “I managed to combine the two,” he explains, which meant he did not lose too much time. “At the time, it seemed like a chore,” he adds. “The hierarchical, highly regulated world got on my nerves and I didn’t much like it.” With hindsight, his opinion has changed a little, but remains mixed. When he became a defence correspondent, he knew this world only through the work of other colleagues, notably the journalist Simon Tivolle.

The course for journalists at the CNEC

At the National Commando Training Centre (CNEC), the DICOD (the Ministry of the Armed Forces’ communication directorate) organises courses for journalists heading to difficult areas. Franck took part in this course, which taught him a lot of “personal and professional things”, such as how to behave at a checkpoint, topography, etc. He also pushed beyond his limits on the high ropes course around the fort, which he did not think he could complete. “What struck me,” he stresses, “is that with around twenty individuals who didn’t know each other, from different media, they managed to turn us into a group.” Another key part of the course, the hostage-taking simulation, “teaches you things about yourself, about others, about stuff,” he says, without going into detail. This part of the course was very useful to the journalist, who was particularly moved by the words of Edouard Ellias, a photojournalist who came to talk about being taken hostage by Daesh in 2011. On the equipment side, Franck was able to compare the effects of “Kalash” and FAMAS rounds, learn how to make a weapon safe, and see the different types of ballistic plates. This last point also allowed him, on his return, to advise France Info on a switch to more effective equipment. However, this type of training increasingly takes place in the private sector, which the journalist regrets: “when you are going to be working in a military environment, a war environment, the best thing is to be with those who wage it most,” he says.

The relationship between journalists and the military

Franck has good relations with the armed forces, thanks to working for a media outlet “that counts”, which reaches thousands or even millions of people in France, making access easier than for local newspapers or freelancers. The relationship is also helped by what he represents: an outlet that is “neutral, fairly factual”, without controversy.

He believes that the military have a good image of journalists, who sometimes take risks to document events. There can be resentment when soldiers have to take risks themselves to free captured journalists. But according to Franck, soldiers and journalists recognise in each other the notion of commitment, of the risk of being killed, of courage, and a mutual respect for these shared values. The France Info correspondent also notes that “all journalists, photographers and reporters have an ego” and want to come back with THE photo. He himself has never been caught in gunfire, but has experienced several tense moments, for example fearing an explosive device on the route of a VAB (armoured personnel carrier).

Media independence

No censorship at Radio France

Franck first tells an anecdote from when he was a reporter at Europe 1: in the early 1990s, he made a report on a strike by cashiers at Carrefour. Summoned by his editor-in-chief, he was told that his report was good but would not be broadcast because Carrefour was an advertiser. “I’ve never had that here since 1993–1994,” he says, also pointing out that Radio France has unions that would get the information out “in the Canard, in Libé, in Le Monde, etc.” if journalists came under “pressure from the authorities”. The only exception dates back to 2003, when a terrorist from the armed group AZF was threatening to plant a bomb on a railway line if the state did not meet his ransom demand. The journalist, like others from various media, received a call from the Ministry of the Interior. The ministry wanted to buy time and “keep the case secret for a few days” because the police were on the terrorist’s trail and did not want the press to jeopardise the investigation or the arrest. “That’s the only time I’ve faced the dilemma of whether to say it or not,” Franck explains. The correspondent also maintains that he does not self-censor in his reporting, even if he is more careful in the military field, for reasons of operational security. For example, he knows where the Task Force Sabre base in Burkina Faso is located, because he has been there, but he will not give its exact location: “you can call it what you like, but for me it isn’t censorship.”

Objectivity in journalism

“I am not objective,” says Franck. “I reject that journalistic notion and replace it with the notion of honesty.” He remembers a conversation in 1994–1995 with a police officer at the end of his career, who explained to him that objectivity was “bullshit”. The officer, a major, gave the example of a hit-and-run car accident for which ten witnesses would give ten different accounts, each convinced they were right. “Everyone sees things differently,” Franck continues. “In the same place, our journalistic eye won’t be drawn to the same things.” He therefore prefers the notion of honesty: “I am able to stand by what I report.”

A media outlet’s editorial line

“Yes, there are media outlets that are politicised, yes, that have a political line, whether left-wing, right-wing or anti-government,” acknowledges Franck, who maintains that Radio France is “fairly neutral” in its editorial line, “unlike Libé, Le Figaro, Mediapart, etc.”

In his own fields, he maintains that the military and law enforcement can receive biased treatment that does not reflect reality. In the case of the revelations about neo-Nazism in the armed forces, Franck states that, while some media implied that such people represented the majority of service personnel, it is in fact not a major phenomenon; but this type of article can “get clicks”. Naming the profession or former job of a soldier or police officer when that person is at the centre of a court case is also very sensationalist. Franck cites the example of Lelandais, always presented as a former soldier when he only served for three years.

The importance of saying where information comes from

The journalist stresses the need to cite the source of information and how it was obtained (through a correspondent, a witness, etc.). In his reports, “I describe what I see,” explains Franck, which is valuable to the people he talks to because they know that their words will not be distorted or taken out of context. Moreover, when he is “embedded”, he wants this to be made clear. Being “embedded” means reporting alongside the armed forces, accompanied by a communications officer. “When I go on an embedded assignment, it isn’t a report in Mali but a report with the French army in Mali,” Franck distinguishes, adding that he is then “in a military bubble”, with a set schedule and destinations and a specific angle.

The difference between journalism and operational communication

“Information is not communication,” Franck notes. And while the army may have an interest in taking a journalist into the field, the journalist must “sense when he is only being shown the positive” and make the distinction. Even when he is on an “embedded” assignment, Franck sometimes tries to break away from the communications officer, who is responsible for the army’s image, in order to get a more natural view. He regrets, for example, the time when soldiers had to put on “immaculate uniforms” for the photo after hours of convoys through the desert, dust and grease, when he would have preferred to show the reality “because their job is hard.”

The man who would like to show makeshift showers, washing done in basins – in short, scenes of daily life – deplores the communication teams’ wish to “show the army as the top brass would like it to be seen, rather than as it is.” He also mentions interviews cut short by the communications officer, which makes the interviewee tense up and close down: “he [the soldier] was telling me about his feelings as a human being, what he had been through on a convoy, the IED that hits the truck in front of him, that wounds… and the comms officer cut him off.” So as not to be held back in his “search for the human side, more than military language”, he now asks that the communications officer no longer intervene during interviews. Franck points out that “most soldiers are aware of the job they do”, know at least the basic security rules and will not lie or say what they should not. In any case, communicating with journalists is part of a soldier’s operational preparation. Finally, even if a soldier reveals a piece of information by mistake, Franck insists that it is not the journalist’s role to exploit that error.

A final piece of advice for a young journalist

The advice is simple for a young reporter who would like to specialise in defence: “if you want to, go for it!” sums up Franck. You have to want to tell stories, you have to do it with enthusiasm to do it well, and take the plunge, “especially as the Institution is rather welcoming.” In this field, the range of subjects is also very wide and fascinating: overseas operations theatres, industry, families, how an ejection seat works, how Dassault designs a Rafale, how the arrival of the Glock is perceived by the regiments, and so on. There are plenty of subjects and the people you talk to are generally open, but you mustn’t do it for the money or for comfortable working conditions. “It’s a fine profession, provided you want to do it and have the enthusiasm to get up every morning for it,” concludes Franck.

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