Canal Plus former employees stand accused of spying on writer

French pay-TV channel Canal Plus and some of its former employees have been accused of illegally spying on Bruno Gaccio, the humourist writer and former producer of puppet-based satire show Les Guignols de l’Info, which is aired by the channel, according to local reports.

A former Canal Plus security employee and former French secret service agent, Pierre Martinet, has published a book recounting how he illegally wiretapped the Guignols production office and followed and photographed Gaccio on the orders of Canal Plus’s then security chief and his deputy. Gaccio was in conflict with the management of Canal Plus at the start of the 2000s.

All three former employees, along with Canal Plus, must now come before a Paris court to face charges of violation of privacy.