The Dreyfus affair and J'Accuse

The Dreyfus affair and J’Accuse are of great importance to Journalism; miscarriage of justice is one of the main areas a journalist will focus on throughout their career; however this case, described as ‘the most famous case of miscarriage of justice ‘is the foundation of the role a journalists plays to ensure justice, as even today we see similar cases with projects to prevent miscarriage of justice such as ‘the innocence project’

At the end of the 19^th century the main powers in Europe were France and Germany, and an attempt to unify Germany and Prussia by Bismarck to entice France, ended in the Franco-Prussian war. This ended in the defeat and capture of Napoleon 3rd at Sedan in 1871. This was a major humiliation for France; a nation proud of its army, therefore France as a whole could not understand the reason for defeat and turned to conspiracy theories; leading to anti-Semitism. The defeat was blamed on the Jews who it was claimed were spies against their own country, working for Germany. The embarrassment didn’t stop here however; The Prussians seized Paris, the rich fled, the poor starved and the provisional French government were made to sign an armistice and pay money to Germany for the costs of them having to go to war: humiliation for France.

The trouble continued when the rich returned; demanding rent from the poor, who had formed the Paris commune; running France how they saw fit, introd0ucing social reforms such as abolishing work at night, rights were given to workers and separation of the church and state. These are the steps towards communism that Marx had previously talked about, and therefore he was overjoyed at the steps taken by the proletariat of France, calling it ‘The dictatorship of the proletariat’.

However the commune was quickly destroyed by the French army and the number of slaughtered in the working class is un-known but may be as many as 50,000; a bloody way to ruthlessly murder the targeted working class.

Still hurting; despite attempting to build an empire, the French felt threatened, and when French military secrets were found in a wastepaper basket in a German embassy office, it became clear that members of the French army were supplying secrets to the Germans.

This is where J’Accuse becomes extremely important in the history of journalism. The anti-Semitism of the time was continued and therefore despite evidence being stacked against him; the Jew Dreyfus was sent to ‘Devils Island’ after being found guilty of treason, and the matter put to bed.

Despite an officer finding new evidence of handwriting matching that of French officer Esterhazy, the case was dismissed and covered up; the court finding him innocent. Emile Zola showed immense bravery here by writing J’Accuse, publishing the names of any officers involved with the scandal and the covering after, trying to publicise the wrong doing on the part of Dreyfus. This landed him with a prison sentence and therefore he ended up fleeing to London, where many other philosophers and historical figures have ended up for speaking their minds and standing up for the truth or what they believe to be right; something which journalists have had to fight for to ensure the free press that we have today.

Despite the case being brought into the media and the spotlight of the public by Zola, forged documents and a second fake trial, Dreyfus was again found guilty under ‘extenuating circumstances’ before being pardoned in 1990. So despite not being able to completely free the broken Dreyfus, we can see that the investigative Journalism by Zola, and the fight to ensure that there was not a miscarriage of justice, brought about a re-trial and a change in government, and a starting point for all journalists to work with to ensure that justice is always seen to be done.