Australian PM derided French Afghan war effort, WikiLeaks

Australia's then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd mocked the French contribution to the Afghan war in 2008 as little more than "organising folk-dancing festivals", WikiLeaks’ latest revelations show. French journalists come under fire from US ambassador Craig Stapleton, who said they lack independence. The charge has received more coverage in Belgium than in France.

A German soldier in the city of Kundunz in northern Afghanistan in December 2010 REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

"In the south-east, the US, Canada, British, Australia and Dutch were doing the 'hard stuff', while in the relatively peaceful north-west, the Germans and French were organising folk dancing festivals," Rudd allegedly told visiting US Congressmen, according to an October 2008 US embassy cable.

Rudd also confessed that the bloody conflict in Afghanistan "scares the hell out of" him and that he was very pessimistic about the outcome of the war. The cables were given exclusively to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

If the French army came under fire for an allegedly limp-wristed involvement in the war,  French journalists were not spared this week by WikiLeaks.

French journalists do not enjoy much independence and are deemed to be too close to French politicians, US ambassador Craig Stapleton wrote in January 2007.

“The private sector media in France - print and broadcast - continues to be dominated by a small number of conglomerates, and all French media are more regulated and subjected to political and commercial pressures than are their American counterparts,” he wrote.

Public television does not enjoy much room for manœuvre either, he writes. “The Higher Audio-Visual Council, created in 1989, appoints the CEOs of all French public broadcasting channels and monitors their political content.”

Stapleton also reports that French journalists do not “necessarily” see their primary role as to check the power of the government.

“Top French journalists are often products of the same elite schools as many French government leaders. These journalists do not necessarily regard their primary role as to check the power of government," he wrote, adding that “rather, many see themselves more as intellectuals, preferring to analyse events and influence readers more than to report events”.