The Fetisov Journalism Awards is supporting calls for police action over a campaign of harassment against investigative journalist Stéphane Horel, the winner of this year’s FJA award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism.
Stéphane is an investigative journalist with Le Monde specialising in corporate harm, toxic industries and scientific disinformation.
Over the past two years she has been the victim of a series of thefts and attempted break-ins at her home which she says are linked to her journalism.
The FJA and other groups supporting the Media Freedom Rapid Response network say the French police must do more to find and prosecute those responsible.
“There is little doubt that this is targeted intimidation of an award-winning reporter who is holding power to account,” said Aidan White, FJA General Director. “We stand in solidarity with her and call on the police to find those responsible and hold them to account.”
Horel says that a number of incidents in which her journalistic equipment and devices have been stolen and her apartment targeted were carried out at a time when she was investigating and exposing illicit corporate lobbying.
Horel has carried out a cross-border investigation into PFAS pollution (often referred to as 'forever chemicals') since 2022, and she launched the Forever Lobbying Project, a collaborative investigation examining industry lobbying efforts aimed at preventing stricter regulations or a ban on PFAS substances.
She says that all the incidents that were directed against her occurred during periods when she was focusing exclusively on PFAS.
In April this year at the FJA awards in Cyprus she received First Prize in the Category for Excellence in Environmental Journalism for her leadership of a cross-border collaboration by 46 journalists, which exposed how European firms launched a disinformation campaign in order to avoid a trillion-euro bill to clean up toxic waste.
Previously, in 2018, she received the European Press Prize for Investigation for the Monsanto Papers, co-written with Stéphane Foucart for Le Monde, she also received the European Science journalist of the year award in 2024.
The Mapping Media Freedom platform, which was set up in 2023, has documented 26 incidents in which 38 journalists have been targeted for their environmental reporting in France.
The topic increasingly generates hostility and intimidation, and the MFRR partners – which includes the European Federation of Journalists and the International Press Institute – says that strong vigilance and action from the authorities is needed.
MFRR partners warned on 5 June, World Environment Day, that thefts and attempted break-ins at the homes of journalists are not just material attacks, but a form of intimidation that is of serious concern.
For further information, contact: Aidan White, +44 7946291511