Cheap, Safe and Clean

The French state energy company EDF has been fined for illegal spying on Greenpeace. French officialdom has taken a robust line with Greenpeace before, leading to the bombing of Rainbow Warrior by the secret service and the death of a photographer, Fernando Pereira, in 1985. Five years ago EDF hired a private detective agency run by a former member of the secret service; the agency hacked the computer of Greenpeace's campaigns director at the time and stole 1400 documents. As one would expect in such a paragon of Rupertian rectitude, EDF owns a large chunk of the nuclear industry in Britain and is a major sponsor of the Tony Olympics. At the trial, EDF used the Murdoch defence, claiming that everything was the work of a few over-zealous rotten apples and that nobody at the company knew anything about anything, and couldn't remember anyway. The court was unconvinced, and several of the company's minions have now been fined and given prison sentences slightly shorter than people can get in Britain for saying silly things on Facebook.