Stéphane Horel, a French journalist and documentary filmmaker born in 1976, has made a significant impact in the field of investigative journalism.
A graduate of the Centre de formation des journalistes (CFJ) in 1999, Horel began her career in various editorial offices of the written press, including Le Monde, AOC, Le Vrai Papier Journal, and Le Canard enchaîné, as well as television channels such as Arte and France 5. However, she soon dedicated most of her time to independent investigations, focusing on the influence of private interests on the general interest, conflicts of interest, and lobbying.
As an investigative journalist, Horel has written extensively on the influence of lobbies on democratic life, exposing instances where the European Commission has copied texts written by lobbies. She has also shown that regulatory actors often believe themselves to be immune to lobbying and attempts to influence, which they take advantage of by playing on their naivety.
Horel's work on the lobbying efforts of the chemical and pesticide industry on European projects to regulate endocrine disruptors has earned her significant recognition. She received a Laurel from the Columbia Journalism Review for an investigation into the conflicts of interest of 19 scientists who had attacked a regulatory project, as well as the Louise Weiss Prize for European journalism in 2015 for her work on the subject.
In addition to her individual work, Horel has also collaborated regularly with the Corporate Europe Observatory, an action-research association focused on industrial lobbying at the European level. Her work has been recognized with several awards, including the European Press Prize (European Prize for investigative journalism) in 2018, which she shared with Stéphane Foucart for their series on the "Monsanto Papers" published in Le Monde.
In 2023, Horel was awarded the European Conference on Tobacco and Health for her work on fake e-cigarette user organizations. Throughout her career, Horel has consistently demonstrated her commitment to shedding light on the influence of private interests on democratic life, and her work has had a significant impact on the field of investigative journalism.
