PARIS, Aug 23, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Agence France-Presse was created in the
tumult of World War II by a band of journalists who stormed a pro-Nazi
newsroom and took over as Paris was in revolt.
It was August 20, 1944, the day after Resistance leader Henri Rol-Tanguy
had called Parisians into action against the Nazis who had occupied their
city for four years. – Propaganda –
The group of eight met at 7:00 am outside a dilapidated building near the
stock exchange on Place de la Bourse, in the heart of Paris, where the French
Information Office (OFI) was installed.
It had been the home of Havas, the world’s first international news agency
that was nationalised by the pro-Nazi regime in 1940 to set up the OFI.
“It had become an agency of German propaganda,” one of the eight, Gilles
Martinet, recalled in a radio interview in 2004.
The streets were empty on that summer Sunday, although a German tank was
stationed close by, another of the group, Basile Tesselin, would write later
in his memoirs.
There was the sound of gunfire as Parisians heeded the call to mobilise
without waiting for French and Allied soldiers to arrive to free their city.
– ‘Nobody move’ –
The group was soon joined by two policemen sent by the Resistance committee
organising the Paris uprising. They were the only ones carrying weapons.
Together they stole up the stairs and burst into the newsroom. Ten heads
darted up, astonished.
“Nobody moves, nobody leaves,” shouted Martial Bourgeon, the eldest in the
group of mostly former Havas editors. “From now on you work for France, and
not the Germans.”
No one moved. A German censor was taken to the basement and locked in.
Bourgeon took charge and assigned roles. Martinet was made editor-in-chief.
The journalists immediately set to work, making contact with teams of
underground newspapers such as Combat, Defense de la France, Le Parisien
Libere and L’Humanite.
– First dispatch –
At 11:30 am the first story went out, announcing they were back in
business.
“At the service of all free newspapers, Agence Fran‡aise de Presse will
ensure, with a strict objectivity that is the duty of a news organisation,
the publishing of news that has been scrupulously checked and verified…,”
it said.
The dispatch also paid hommage to other journalists missing or captured by
the Nazi police.
“As fighting continues in the city, and where new freedom fighters fall, we
salute all our comrades of the press who have disappeared, are imprisoned and
deported, and in particular our 21 comrades who have fallen into the hands of
the Gestapo.”
– Network grows –
The first stories were printed on early stencil duplication Roneo machines
and distributed by cyclists to newspapers and Resistance offices across the
city.
Communication was established with journalists of the French government-in-
exile led by Charles de Gaulle.
The news team grew fast. People slept at the office and raided the stocks
of a nearby restaurant that had served as a canteen for German officers. On
the menu: pate foie gras and fine wines.
– Paris liberated –
Over the next days reporters crossed the city on bicycles, watching for the
arrival of the first French troops.
The scoop went to Tesselin, who had installed himself in the police
headquarters with a phone line from the police chief’s bathroom.
“General (Philippe) Leclerc entered Paris this morning, at 8:45, through
the Porte d’Orleans amid indescribable enthusiasm,” he reported on August 25.
“His troops were greeted by bursts of machine-gun fire from the rooftops,
where militia and Germans dressed as civilians were posted.”
A fierce shootout ensued and Germans were taken prisoner, Tesselin
reported.
Just hours later, other dispatches announced that the Germans had
surrendered.
Paris was liberated.
– Worldwide –
In 1957, the French parliament adopted the AFP Statute guaranteeing the
agency’s editorial independence and financial autonomy.
Still headquartered at Place de la Bourse, it has expanded to cover more
than 150 countries, becoming one of world’s biggest news agencies alongside
Reuters and Associated Press.