Ariane Chemin broke story of a scandal that shook President Emmanuel Macron. PHOTO: .NAHARNET
Ariane Chemin, who works for the Le Monde daily, said she was questioned by General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) for some 45 minutes in the presence of her lawyer after being summoned last week.
"I explained that I only carried out my job of a journalist," she told AFP after the meeting.
She added she had insisted on her rights to keep sources secret while carrying out work of public interest based on a law dating back to 1881.
"They asked me many questions on the manner in which I checked my information, which was an indirect way of asking me about my sources," she said.
Le Monde's managing director Louis Dreyfus was also questioned by the DGSI on Wednesday.
Chemin has written a series of articles over the former presidential bodyguard Alexandre Benalla, who was fired last year after he was filmed roughing up a protester in one of the biggest scandals to shake Macron to date.
It was a July 18 article by Chemin that first reported that Benalla had beaten the May Day demonstrator while wearing a police helmet.
The summons stemmed in particular from articles about former air force officer Chokri Wakrim, the partner of Marie-Elodie Poitout, the ex-head of security at the prime minister's office.
Poitout resigned her post after media revelations that she and Wakrim had welcomed Benalla to their home in July but insisted it had only been a social affair.
The Elysee has been accused of covering up the affair by failing to report Benalla to the authorities.
The secret service has already summoned seven reporters who published details over how French arms sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were being used in Yemen's civil war, sparking an outcry by press freedom activists.
The SNJ-CGT union has called for a demonstration outside the headquarters of the DGSI on Wednesday "in support of those journalists summoned by the French state in violation of the law on press freedom."
The association of Le Monde reporters (SRM) said on their Twitter account that Chemin was simply "bringing to attention of citizens information that was in the public interest and thus was only doing her job."
But Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet told the French Senate on Wednesday that the summons should "in no way be seen as an attempt at intimidation or a threat".
She said the summons for Chemin was issued as part of a preliminary enquiry carried out under the supervision of the Paris prosecutor following a complaint by a special forces member that his identity had been revealed by the paper.
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