After being held for 48 hours, Bruno Thomas, a reporter with the Paris-based car magazine Auto Plus, was charged today in connection with an industrial spying complaint brought by the French car-maker Renault last year when the magazine published photos of future Renault models.

“Holding Thomas for 48 hours was outrageous, and charging him on five counts is just a ploy by the police and judicial authorities to get him to reveal his sources,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Once again, a basic principle of journalism is being flouted.”

Thomas was taken into custody on 15 July after watching plain-clothes police from Versailles search his office at Auto Plus headquarters in the 15th district of Paris. Reporters Without Borders repeatedly contacted the Versailles criminal investigation department on 15 and 16 July but the police refused to say where he was being held.

Thomas was taken this morning to the Versailles prosecutor’s office where he was charged with “complicity in breach of trust,” “unauthorised publication or reproduction in writing, drawing or any other form in violation of the laws and regulations relating to the property of the author, and complicity therein,” “unauthorised publication of an intellectual product in violation of authorship rights, and complicity therein,” “acquiescing in inducements to corrupt and complicity therein” and “revealing a manufacturing secret, and complicity therein.”

Auto Plus editor Laurent Chiapello said: “These charges seem rather unreal for journalists. It is not going to be easy to establish what journalism has become today in France.”

Thomas was placed under judicial control when he was released today at 11 a.m., but Chiapello said the restrictions imposed on him were not too onerous. “He has the right to do everything except talk to the people at Renault or to their suppliers,” Chiapello said.

Renault’s director of legal affairs issued a statement yesterday pointing out that the complaint filed by the company was against unidentified persons and “not against any named person or against the magazine.” Without commenting on Thomas’ arrest, the statement added: “We leave it to the judicial authorities to decide how they conduct the investigation.”