"In his videos, he calls his wife a 'slut' hundreds of times, a term he qualified as a 'compliment' before the investigating judge. He said he still loves her and that she's a 'saint' with nothing to be ashamed of, even if that's 'paradoxical' given what he has done to her." It was through the writing of Lorraine de Foucher, 38, that Le Monde readers discovered, on June 20, 2023, the rapes that Dominique Pelicot subjected his wife, Gisèle, to over a period of years.

This article, as well as her investigation into migrant women who are victims of rape and her exposure of the system of predation of young women in the porn industry convinced the jury of France's highest journalism award, the Prix Albert Londres, to award our colleague its 96^th distinction in the written press category on Wednesday, December 4.

And yet, we sometimes have to fight against ourselves to read her articles. You have to go over it again and again, because a sentence conjures up a disturbing image, provokes an awareness or digs a chasm in your thought patterns. "People often say to me: 'It's appalling to read,'" she admitted. "To which I always reply: 'Imagine what it's like to write. And it's nothing compared to what it's like to live it.'" In her eyes, it's no small thing, either, "for the field of documenting male violence," which she's been exploring since 2017, to be rewarded. "It elevates it," she asserted.

'The stakes of today's conflicts'

Additionally, 34-year-old Martin Untersinger, also a journalist with Le Monde, has been awarded the eighth book prize. In Espionner, mentir, détruire ("Spy, Lie, Destroy"), published in 2024, our colleague recounts the conflicting world of "our common space," cyberspace, from a human perspective. "I wanted to dispel the idea that hackers are pimply teenagers in their garages," Untersinger explained. "Instead, we're talking about intelligence agencies, soldiers, engineers... who answer to ministers, chiefs of the General Staff, and therefore, who intervene in conflicts." According to the jury, chaired by former France Télévisions reporter Hervé Brusini, the book "quite simply sets out the stakes of present and future conflicts, based on the recent history of cyberattacks."

Finally, in the video category, the 40^th award goes to Antoine Védeilhé, 34, and Germain Baslé, 27. Their film Philippines: Diving for Gold for Arte Reportage is a timely reminder that child labor "is still sadly topical in the 21^st century," said the jury.