“No more shame” (“No more shame”). On the front page of the German edition of the magazine Vogueon November 25, three words and a face were displayed: that of Gisèle Pelicot, penciled in orange-red tones, on the occasion of the international day against violence against women. The choice is surprising for the famous fashion publication, more accustomed to representing skinny models. “In the ongoing trial against her husband (and 50 other men who raped her), Gisèle Pelicot shows the importance of speaking out”reports the caption of the Instagram post relaying the drawing, shared by more than 17,000 people.
This is the Gisèle Pelicot effect. The one whose “courage and dignity” were greeted as far as Chile by the president of the Chamber of Deputies on November 21, during a speech in front of a host named Emmanuel Macron. The septuagenarian – who celebrated her 72nd birthday on Saturday – is scrutinized by the media around the world since she firmly refused to hold the hearings behind closed doors, accepting that the videos of the rapes she suffered be broadcast publicly. An act that took her from victim status to heroine. And gave the Mazan rape trial an unprecedented scale.
When it opened on September 2, around thirty national media, including five foreign, were accredited to cover the event. Three months later, no less than 165 titles, including 76 foreign ones, received the famous access badge to the small courtroom of the Avignon court, which usually can only accommodate around thirty journalists. It doesn't matter: everyone wants to capture the images of the retiree applauded every day by a loyal crowd.
As the verdict approaches, scheduled for December 20 at the latest, requests for access are increasing. The latest concerns the Brazilian and Canadian press. Unprecedented for a French trial: the international crowd exceeds that of the trials of the terrorist attacks of January and November 2015.
The New York Times was among the first foreign media to cover the affair. Catherine Porter and Ségolène Le Stradic, two of his correspondents in Paris, even prepared a detailed article before the start of the trial. Its title: “France faces the horror of a rape and drugs case with the trial of 51 men”. Published on September 2, the first day of hearing, it was consulted by a million readers in 24 hours, just on the digital version of the daily.
On September 3, Catherine Porter went to Avignon to follow the trial. “[Des confrères de] France Bleu and TF1, visibly surprised, asked me: 'But what are you doing there?' I answer them: 'You think it's not important enough for the New York Times ?'”relates this journalist experienced in following rape cases in the United States, Canada and Haiti, where she lived for several years. “I felt it would be huge,” she confides.
“For me, it was obvious that this trial was going to shake up France.”
Catherine Porter, correspondent for the “New York Times”at franceinfo
After five weeks of hearings, several leading Anglo-Saxon titles are in turn interested in the case, through a societal prism. This is the case of Time Magazine who leans on the line of defense of the accused: men who thought they had the victim's agreement because they had that of her husband. “In France. In the 21st century”, we choke in the columns of the magazine. “The Pelicot affair shows” what “not all men, but any man (…) whatever his age, his profession, his marital status”, can rape women, observes the American monthly The Atlantic.
If the trial finds a certain echo in the American press, its scope must still be put into perspective. “It’s a story that is widely followed in educated and progressive circles”points out independent American journalist Monique El-Faizy, who is preparing a book on “Pelicot trial” (the “Pelicot trial”) or the “French mass rape trial” (“the mass rape trial in France”), as it is called in the United States.
In Europe, interest is immense. Across the Channel, the Guardian met “all his strength” on the affair, underlines Angelique Chrisafis, one of the two correspondents of the British daily in Paris. However, the legal news has been busy since the start of the school year, with the trial of the case of the European parliamentary assistants of the National Rally or that of the death of Samuel Paty. “But the choice was quick”slips the journalist. Regularly present in Avignon, she remains amazed by the audience for her articles, which are among the most viewed on her media site. “As soon as it concerns the Pelicot trial, readers read until the end, even when the content is very long.”
Proof that the subject raises multiple questions abroad, one of his colleagues published an investigation into rape by chemical submission in England. Another journalist, based in New York, investigated for the daily the Coco site, via which Dominique Pelicot made contact with his 50 co-defendants.
The BBC, which included the victim in its 100 Women of 2024 list, is also covering the case. The British public audiovisual group is preparing an in-depth documentary, which is scheduled to be broadcast just after the verdict. Its competitor, the private channel Channel 5, followed suit and has just completed its own, broadcast in prime time on all UK TVs on December 11. “We will speak with one of the alleged rapists to hear his defense in one of the most shocking rape cases in the world”announces the synopsis, relayed by Variety.
The trial is also the subject of a more voyeuristic treatment by the sulfurous Daily Mail, Who had sent two reporters to Mazan in 2023. They were surprised that “this appalling crime” did not “dominate the news bulletins for weeks” In France. Since the start of the trial, three journalists from the British tabloid have taken turns, naming Dominique Pelicot as “the monster of Avignon”, and going so far as to publish the names of the accused as well as several photos of them, taken on the fly.
In the Netherlands, Dutch public television broadcast a first report on October 19, covering the main points of the affair in its evening slot, around 10 p.m. The subject has since received a wide response, which pushes its director Saskia Dekkers to be invited “in all the radios and talk shows” to talk about it. The enthusiasm is such that the NPO channel opened its “8 p.m.” broadcast on November 25 with the trial.
Same enthusiasm across the Rhine. Among the accredited foreign journalists, the Germans are the most numerous, with around fifteen representatives. After a first article on three pages – entitled “Gisèle: thank you” (in French in the text) – in the weekly The mirror, the newspaper's correspondent in France thought that the blow would die down. “But interest has remained constant: the more people read, the more they want to learn [sur le sujet]“notes Britta Sandberg, so much so that the magazine commissioned a four-episode podcast from her on the subject.
“I can’t remember a French affair that took up so much space in Germany.”
Britta Sandberg, correspondent for “Der Spiegel”at franceinfo
The German public feels “proximity to the facts”she notes. “We are not in circles far removed from politics or cinema, as with business [Dominique] Strauss-Kahn or [Gérard] Depardieu. It takes place in a village, neither precarious nor rich, just as normal. People say it could have happened anywhere.”.
The journalist was able to measure the impact of her articles when, in the middle of the trial, she went to a small village of 500 souls in the Bavarian countryside, for a meeting with her bank. The director approaches him and entrusts him with following the case down to the smallest details. “Shame must change sides!”he tells her, repeating the famous sentence pronounced by Stéphane Babonneau, one of Gisèle Pelicot's lawyers.
Beyond the facts, the personality of the septuagenarian seems to play a role in the hypermedia coverage of the affair. “It is the discovery of a heroine of the people who rose by doing something astonishing, courageous”, believes Britta Sandberg.
In Spain, Raquel Villaécija, who follows the audience for the daily The Worldfirst mentioned “of the Pelicot trial” in the columns of the newspaper. But quickly, she only mentioned the first name “Gisele” in the titles of his reports. Victim-focused articles can stay on the site's home page for hours, while those evoking Dominique Pelicot are more quickly eclipsed. “She arouses much more interest than him,” notes the journalist, who is delighted “that a 72-year-old woman, victim of mass rape, is praised to the skies”. “It's like your grandmother becoming a feminist icon, she laughs. In twenty years, Gisèle Pelicot will be as famous as Simone de Beauvoir abroad.
For her colleague Catherine Porter, it is precisely because she “is not a militant feminist” that the victim affects so many people. “She has a very clear analysis, doesn't give interviews, expresses herself just what is necessary, when necessary”, underlines the correspondent of New York Timesadding that “his charisma” shines through in every photo. The journalist summarizes: “to this incredible story is added an incredible protagonist”.