FRANCE: Bugging the Duck

The headline in France's satirical weekly Le Canard Enchainé (The Chained Duck) was printed in big red type last week, and it read: WATERGATE au CANARD. To the delight of the editors, one of Le Canard's cartoonists, Andre Escaro, had stumbled on an attempt to install bugging devices in the paper's new offices. The result: a scoop that had the government embarrassedly denying any knowledge of the affair, opposition Deputies demanding explanations in the National Assembly—and a sale of 660,000 copies for Le Canard, 210,000 more than the usual run.

As Escaro told it, he happened to be passing the paper's new premises at 173 rue St.-Honoré when he noticed flashlight beams coming from the third-floor office of the managing director. Investigating, he found three workers in blue overalls and two other men in street clothes who explained that they were installing the heating; Escaro, however, happened to recall that the work had been done three weeks earlier.

Scandal Details. "I felt the atmosphere become tense," he said. "I thought I had better get out of here quick." Dashing downstairs, Escaro heard a voice come over a walkie-talkie held by a uniformed cop in front of the doorway. "Hello, hello, No. 2. Follow the guy who has come out. We've got to get out of here. Every man for himself." Escaro returned later with several Canard colleagues. The raiders had disappeared, but left evidence of their night's effort, which was duly photographed and published.

Le Canard, which has been twitting French governments for years by printing juicy details of scandals involving political figures, promptly pinned the break-in on Minister of the Interior Raymond Marcellin whose office is responsible for all authorized wiretapping in the country. Marcellin's Ministry professed ignorance of the incident. But few Frenchmen were totally convinced. For one thing, a Senate investigating committee reported last month that the telephones of 1,500 to 5,000 people in France were tapped every day on a permanent or spot basis—most without a court order and thus illegally. For another, Le Canard was publicizing the anti-wiretapping campaign, which had been stalled by the government's refusal to cooperate with Senate investigators.

Opposition spokesmen were indignant. Said Radical-Socialist Senator Henri Caillavet: "Three weeks ago, I said on television that if the government leaders didn't watch out, we would soon find ourselves in a police state. Now, apparently, we are in one." Le Canard, however, did not lose its satirical cool. On the front page of its "Watergaffe" issue, the editors jokingly boasted: "Read Le Canard Enchainé, the most listened-to newspaper in France."