IPI joins the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners in standing in full solidarity with Le Monde investigative journalist Stéphane Horel and calling on police to hold those responsible for a series of thefts and attempted break-ins believed to be linked to her work accountable.
Between 2024 and 2025, the investigative reporter has been targeted by a series of incidents in both public and private settings in which her journalistic equipment and devices have been stolen and her apartment targeted. Horel, a well known journalist specialising in corporate harm, toxic industries and scientific disinformation, has stated that she believes the incidents are connected and linked directly to her journalistic work.
Horel has been conducting a cross-border investigation into PFAS pollution, (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances often referred to as ‘forever chemicals’) since 2022. As a result of the investigations, she launched the Forever Lobbying Project, a collaborative investigation examining industry lobbying efforts aimed at preventing stricter regulations or a ban on PFAS substances. According to the journalist, all incidents occurred during periods when she was focusing exclusively on PFAS.
The series of incidents began with the theft of her phone and backpack in 2024, followed by two alleged attempts to break into her house in May and October of that year, while she was attending conferences, for which her presence was publicly announced. The situation escalated in 2025. Ten days before the publication of the ‘Forever Lobbying Project’, there was another attempted break-in while the journalist was home. Her door was the only one targeted. In June, her phone was stolen in a café terrace by a man who walked straight away to her table before fleeing in a car while Horel’s bag was stolen outside Le Monde editorial offices in September 2025.