Rocchi fights back

With the complaint, Rocchi and the newspaper want to express their "united opposition to the working methods of the prosecutor Nicolas Aubert". Data protection is a principle that the newspaper does not allow to be negotiated with, Le Matin stated in a media release on Friday. During the searches on Aug. 13, material belonging to the journalist's wife was also seized. Le Matin newspaper questioned the actions of the judiciary.

Questions about the approach of the judiciary

One rightly wonders whether the public prosecutor had not wanted to teach a journalist who was too disruptive for the Neuchâtel authorities a lesson, said Eric Hoesli, director of the Tamedia publishing house's publications in western Switzerland. nLudovic Rocchi himself commented on the case in the newspaper of Syndicom, the media and communications union: "They're trying to scare people so they stop talking to the press." The journalists' association Imprint spoke of a blatant violation of press freedom. On the website of the media magazine Edito+Klartext, the former president of the Press Council, Peter Studer, called the "raid" on the journalist's apartment scandalous, disproportionate and a curtailment of media freedom.

Series of articles about accusations of plagiarism at the University of Neuchâtel

The reason for the searches was a lawsuit against Rocchi for defamation, slander and violation of official secrecy. A professor at the University of Neuchâtel is behind the lawsuit. Rocchi's articles about the professor had led the Neuchâtel State Council in the spring to decide to launch an administrative investigation into allegations of plagiarism at the University of Neuchâtel's economics faculty. Last week, Neuchâtel Education Director Monika Maire-Hefti announced that this administrative investigation would move forward. The report on the plagiarism allegations could be available as early as the end of August. (SDA)

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