Spies, prostitutes and intrigue in the corridors of Canal Plus

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David Hearst in Paris
Thursday May 5, 2005
The Guardian

It has all the ingredients of a fast-moving thriller. A spy who had just come in from the cold, well, London actually. A deep throat who gave him the records of the mobile phone his target was using. A plot hatched to plant drugs on the target's scooter. A plan to hire a prostitute who would claim she had been raped by him.

Except that this is not a tale from the underworld of French espionage, but a snapshot of staff relations at Canal Plus, France's premier cable television channel.
Gilles Kaehlin, the head of security at Canal Plus, was forced to resign yesterday amid a flurry of writs and allegations which started when Pierre Martinet, a former spy, published a book in which he claims he was asked to dig dirt on the company's executives.

Mr Martinet accuses his former employers at Canal Plus, without naming them, of asking him to spy on a dozen top executives, including the man known as the Che Gue vara of the channel, Bruno Gaccio, the creator of the political satire Les Guignols de l'info, France's version of Spitting Image.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,1476691,00.html