Sleaze-raking French website has political elite quaking
(Reuters) - A fledgling investigative website has made its mark as the top French media exposing government sleaze, with its coup against a minister leaving national newspapers playing catch-up and other politicians quaking.
After a late-2000s debut uncovering alleged graft led to the career downfall of a conservative minister, Mediapart has toppled a second minister, this time in the Socialist government, showing it has no allegiance to left or right.
Its disclosure that the man in charge of public finances had an undeclared Swiss bank account until mid-March has created the biggest sleaze scandal of President Francois Hollande's 11-month-old Socialist government.
Edwy Plenel, a longtime investigative reporter who founded Mediapart in 2008, said on Tuesday a shake-up had been long overdue in a political establishment used to newspapers turning a blind eye to peccadillos.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/10/uk-france-mediapart-idUKBRE93906020130410