Who’s Denis Robert ?

Denis Robert Support Committee calling all journalists.

We’re missing one thing:
A massive, straight-up, protective support drive from the journalist community as a whole.

In 2006, there was a dozen of us telling ourselves:
What is happening to Denis is inadmissible and frankly unbelievable!
Back then, a war was being waged between Sarkozy (Minister of Home Affairs) and De Villepin (Prime Minister), and Denis’s book on the Clearstream scandal had just been banned from sale, in a deafening silence. It became clear that if we let him face the media storm and his legal worries alone, he was going to get crushed.

Since then, the Support Committee we founded in November 2006 has:

1- Created an online presence via the blog: http://lesoutien.blogspot.com

2- Communicated as much as possible about the trouble that just keeps building up for Denis.

3- Created an e-bay store selling Tee-shirts, original drawings donated by friends, books and even wine

4- Organised concerts (1,000-strong public in Paris la Cigale on the 17th of April), held forums and press conferences, sent statements…

So far the committee has gathered about 40,000 euros, three quarters of which have already been spent on lawyer fees and various fines.

All this is helping Denis keep his head above the water and allows him to fight better against the 28 legal proceedings (both civil and criminal action) currently held against him in France, Belgium and Luxemburg, most of them emanating from Clearstream and the Fortis group via it’s subsidiary Banque Générale du Luxembourg.

Nevertheless, the future looks grim. He is being prosecuted for concealment of stolen goods and breach of trust and will soon be sitting in a criminal court for abuse and libel in Luxemburg, where they seem quite determined to make him pay for his attitude…Denis Robert is not alone.

He’s got friends from all horizons and social classes. The massive support for his cause has overwhelmed him, and us too. Our blog has already gotten 40,000 visitors. About 1000 people wrote to us and donated money.

We’re missing just one thing:

A massive, straight-up, protective support drive from the journalist community as a whole.

Denis may not have a Press Pass since he left the newspaper Libération in July 1995, but how can one deny that his books and movies, demonstrating original and well-documented investigations, really helped us understand the low-down world of high finance?

We think that for any journalist, writer or editor, supporting Denis is also a way of protecting themselves against what could happen very soon to others…Who’s safe from prosecution or repeated legal action whenever a hot topic is discussed or a financial powerhouse is put under scrutiny?

Today, we’ve decided to take it a step further and issue a call to all journalists, writers and editors, regardless of their sector.

Supporting Denis Robert means helping create a safety perimeter around those whose job is relay information, and showing that journalists can mobilize and resist the ever-growing pressures to control information.

Send us a sign of support: a scanned image of your Press Pass, a phrase, a word, a picture of you, a drawing or simply a signature, and we will upload it to our blog: http://lesoutien.blogspot.com

Please forward this to all your journalist friends around the world.
Awaiting your signs of support, but not without thanks to you all...

Denis’s Blog at
– http://translate.google.com/transla...

Denis Robert Support Committee