Erik Tegnér, founder and director of the investigative outlet Frontières, has been convicted in the first instance for publishing the names and professional details of immigration lawyers in a critical report on the migration industry.
On June 18, the Bobigny Criminal Court sentenced Tegnér to six months in prison with a suspended sentence, a €10,000 fine and ordered him to pay damages of €2,000 to each of the 10 plaintiff lawyers.
The court ruled that publishing the lawyers’ names, first names, and cities of practice in a 2025 special issue constituted “doxing” — the disclosure of personal data that could expose individuals to hostility or violence.
The conviction was handed down under provisions of the French Penal Code strengthened after the 2020 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty by a radical Islamist, originally intended to combat online harassment and the public exposure of individuals to targeted threats.
Frontières had published a detailed investigation into lawyers specialising in asylum and immigration law.
The report highlighted the volume of appeals filed against deportation orders, the use of public legal aid funding, and what the magazine described as a profitable “business model” built around challenging prefectural decisions.
Frontières shared the names of the lawyers, the cities where they worked and described them as “ideological activists”, who were the “culprits” of the migration crisis and suspected of having made a “juicy business” of defending migrants.
Some lawyers were linked to activist groups such as Utopia 56.
Tegnér and his team maintain that the information was factual, documented and already in the public domain through court records and the lawyers’ own communications.
They argue the reporting followed standard journalistic practice of naming those involved in matters of significant public interest.
According to the President of the Court, Youssef Badr, the publication of the article could lead to violence against the lawyers, in particular due to the “virulent rhetoric”.
He described it as “an accusatory and stigmatising list”.
Badr has drawn particular attention from right-wing commentators due to his publicly stated progressive positions and activism on diversity issues within the judiciary.
Tegnér has announced he will appeal the ruling, calling it a “political trial” and an attack on investigative journalism.
He also noted that a professor once filed charges against left-wing outlet mediapart for doxing after her anonymous account on X was exposed for alleged Islamophobia, but that the court rejected this.
His lawyer, Frédéric Pichon, said he was “scandalised” by the verdict and noted that, “The Paty law, which was made to protect victims of terrorist offences, has been misused, with absolutely blatant indecency, to turn it against journalists.”
Figures on the right have rallied to his defence, arguing that exposing the operations of lawyers who profit from the asylum system and receiving taxpayer money is legitimate public-interest reporting, comparable to any other journalistic investigation that names individuals or organisations.
Philippe de Villiers strongly backed Tegnér on CNews, praising Frontières for investigating what he called the “business” of pro-migration lawyers and calling the use of the Samuel Paty law against a journalist “staggering.”
Other right-wing voices have condemned the ruling as lawfare designed to shield actors in the migration industry from scrutiny.
Je viens d’être condamné à 6 mois de prison avec sursis et 10 000€ d’amende, sur le fondement de… la loi Samuel Paty !
Condamné comme journaliste car mon média Frontières a publié une grande enquête sur les avocats en droit des étrangers.
C’est un immense scandale ! pic.twitter.com/XVdLFkahA4
— Erik Tegnér (@tegnererik) June 18, 2026
