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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows the re-enactment of part of a meeting in Paris between investigative journalist Chris Masters and a former French secret service agent, who explains why the link between the French Government and the sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was leaked. Masters, standing on a bridge and speaking to camera, describes the meeting. He waits for and then walks with a stand-in actor as a recording of the actual informant’s voice, subtitled in English, is played.

Educational value points

• This clip is an example of investigative journalism at its best – the Four Corners team headed by Chris Masters scored an international scoop by identifying that the French Government was responsible for the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. Just minutes before the Four Corners program went to air the evening news reported that the French secret service had been cleared by a French inquiry of any involvement in the bombing.

• Three main elements add drama to the re-enactment of the meeting with the former agent: the setting (the clandestine nature of the meeting is juxtaposed with sightseers and pleasure craft); the language (Masters uses present tense to help build drama about the meeting to come) and the authenticity of the recorded voice (the operative, speaking in French, divulges that the two people arrested were French agents and that the bombing was therefore a political operation).

• In the clip, the French secret service agent says that the link between the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE) and the sabotaging of the Rainbow Warrior was leaked because of frustration at the way two agents involved in the sinking had seemingly been abandoned. Later in the program he says that there is an unwritten rule within the organisation: if you make a mistake you are on your own, but if not the 'company’ has an obligation to 'recover’ you.

• The 'Turenge couple’ – French army Major Alain Mafart and Captain Dominique Prieur – were part of the seven-person team involved in Operation Satanic, and were viewed very differently by France and NZ. The French Government and opposition were united in their view that although the Government could be seen as culpable the individual officers were obeying orders and could not. In NZ they were criminals accountable to NZ justice.

• This example of investigative journalism was successful because of the speed with which Four Corners reacted to the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. Masters and producer Bruce Belsham were able to follow leads as they were being investigated by the NZ police. In Paris, where this clip was filmed, the Four Corners team found former secret service agents who were angry about the fate of their colleagues and who were willing to talk to the press.

• Chris Masters (1948–) received a Logie Award, three Walkley Awards and a Gold Walkley for French Connections, the Four Corners report from which this clip was taken. His investigations helped precipitate official enquiries and consolidated his reputation as an investigative journalist. A version of the report was shown all over the world. Masters was awarded a Public Service Medal in 1999 and a Centenary Medal in 2002.