The Dreyfus Affair

Since this presentation should be related to the specific part of the journalism, the newspaper journalism, I decided that it would be suitable to present a story, showing how the journalism can change, manipulate and have serious impact on the society as well as on the stability of the country itself. A story, how a single article can save people from life time of imprisonment and prove a government guilty.

It happened on the treason conviction which took place in 1894 of Alfred Dreyfus, a artillery officer in the French army with Jewish origin, or as the public knows it Ð'- "The Dreyfus affair". Dreyfus was accused with passing military secrets to the German Embassy in France. In fact, he was innocent. The whole conviction was based on false, supposedly incriminating documents. Dreyfus was sentenced to a life time of imprisonment.

Secrets started leaking. It was actually a big cover up operation, which featured forgery and perjury against their own country. The conspirators were at least eight generals, assisting Major Marie-Charles-Ferdinand Esterhazy, the one that actually have committed the crime, for which Dreyfus took the blame. That was established by Colonel Picquart the new chief of the French intelligence service. The army refused to reopen the case and Picquart received a posting to Tunisia. His successor began to manufacture evidence to prove Dreyfus's guilt, but meanwhile so many questions had been raised in public that a trial of EsterhÐ"ÐŽzy became inevitable.

At this point comes Emile Zola. A famous French novelist, who exposed the affair to the general public in the Paris newspaper "L'Aurore". It was an article written in the form of an open letter to the President of France in 1898, where he attacked the army's actions against Dreyfus in an the title "J'accuse" ( I accuse ). There he accuses the army, of the cover up and shows Esterhazy as clearly guilty and Dreyfus as unjustly punished.

"As they have dared, so shall I dare. Dare to tell the truth, as I have pledged to tell it, in full, since the normal channels of justice have failed to do so. My duty is to speak out; I do not wish to be an accomplice in this travesty. My nights would otherwise be haunted by the spectre of the innocent man, far away, suffering the most horrible of tortures for a crime he did not commit. "

He gave a detailed explanation of how Dreyfus was convicted for something he never did. He showed that the real felon was Esterhazy and revealed the enormousness of the cover up, as well as the names of the officers that have been involved on the operation.

By writing that article, Zola was aiming at two targets. The first, to provide the public with the real information and overview of the Dreyfus case, and thereby shift their opinion in he's favor. And Second, he hoped, that after reading the article, the authorities will find new evidence to reopen the case after all and prove the innocence of Dreyfus and the guilt of Esterhazy.

And he succeeded, on both. He attracted many supporters of the Dreyfus innocence, and at the same time he attracted a world wide attention the this problem, by accusing the French military in enormous mistakes.

It is unique type of article, because of the impact on the society. The people basically divided in two fractions Ð'- "dreyfusards" ( the ones supporting Alfred Dreyfus ) and "antidreyfusards" ( the ones against Dreyfus ). The left wing- The republicans, were the "dreyfusards", and the right wing, the ones supporting