( CNN ) -- More than ever , the French are thinking and hearing about sex . Sex in high places , for a change . The thick wall that separated the public and private lives of our ruling elite and kept their backstage manners out of the headlines is now crumbling at a fast pace . And the Dominique Strauss-Kahn earthquake has a lot to do with it . Two criminal cases against the former director of the International Monetary Fund , one closed in New York , the other still pending in northern France after his indictment for alleged promotion of prostitution , have given the press more than an opportunity , a civic obligation to tip-toe around our strict privacy laws and question , for the first time , their cozy gentleman 's agreement with the powerful . Now what ? Things are changing . Today , Jean Quatremer , a journalist at the daily Liberation , tells in his new book how , nearly four years ago , he got the scoop about the opening of an internal investigation at the IMF on DSK 's relationship with a subordinate ; and how his editors of the time killed the story . ( The Wall Street Journal finally got the tip ) . Until this year , also , excellent journalists at Le Monde like Raphael Bacqué and Ariane Chemin would not have found a publisher willing to release their own book , `` Les Strauss-Kahn , '' a chronicle of the life of DSK and his famous journalist wife Anne Sinclair . Now a best-seller , their investigation certainly describes numerous flavors of Strauss-Kahn 's behavior . But it deals more with another relationship , the bizarre ménage à trois between the elite circles , French citizens and the truth . In France , centuries of feudal privileges did not disappear at the birth of the Fifth Republic . In the last 40 years , most privacy laws were created not by the demand of citizens fearing the Big Brother state , but rather by the political class itself , to keep its safe distance from the electorate . And self-censorship ruled . In a recent documentary ( about DSK ) a French media critic recalled the time when , as a rookie in 1982 , he asked a seasoned correspondent at the Elysée what President Mitterrand did after work . The answer came , in a blasé voice that hinted at a banal routine : `` He leaves his office around 6:30 . Then , he just spends the evening with his second family . '' This fact was made public only in 1994 , when Mitterrand gave a green light for a cover picture in Paris Match showing his beloved daughter with him . Just over a year later , she was at his funeral with her mother , an act of public regal recognition that moved the nation . Strauss-Kahn , like other avatars of the system , reveled in his own kind of aristocratic and exclusive playground . Silence and immunity became the measure , the flattering reflection of his growing power and nobility . His demise in France could be seen as the symbolic start of a new era of openness , but we are still in an awkward transition period , where the French public opinion is trying hard to find its mark . Until Nicolas Sarkozy , no president had ever divorced , out of fear it would irritate the shrinking number of Roman Catholics in the electorate , or open a Pandora 's Box of distasteful revelations ; but sexual morality has never been a reliable electoral criterion . Rumors on the internet have upstaged uncertain values , fed cynicism and the rise of populist movements , a blanket ideology of the `` Tous Pourris '' ( they are all rotten ) at the core of the extreme right-wing psyche . But in the current confusion , many French would prefer to maintain good old privacy , especially in its male-friendly version . During the Strauss-Kahn epic , for example , women who dared to connect the dots between his character flaws and eligibility for office , saying they would not vote for a misogynist , were often ridiculed as nuns or man-haters . Most people , in spite of the current publishing frenzy , would rather know less , and keep power on its safe pedestal . That trend started before Strauss-Kahn , when Sarkozy , dumped by his second wife right after his election in 2007 , had to become the president next door , and rebuild his life `` live '' with glamorous Carla Bruni . Ironically , for acting like a mere mortal , be it on prime time , in luxurious and idyllic conditions , he was accused of desecrating the presidency : Too visible , too `` bling bling , '' too out of touch . His successor , François Hollande , won as `` Mr Normal . '' But his life is far from uneventful . His separation with his companion Segolène Royal , a prominent socialist , a former presidential candidate and mother of his four children , totally disturbed their party in 2007 . His flame ever since , now the First Lady , named Valerie Trierweiler , a journalist , is still so consumed by jealousy that she tweeted her support for Segolène 's political opponent during the last parliamentary elections . Her move , a cyber-age rendition of 18th century boudoir warfare , openly contributed to the defeat of her nemesis , ruining her chances to become the President of the Assemblée Nationale . The truth is out now , but it is not certain the French like it that way . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Philippe Coste .
Philippe Coste : The DSK cases have given the press the opportunity to question the powerful . The most powerful in France used to enjoy silence and secrecy , he says . He says Wikipedia 's demise in France could be seen as symbolic of a new era of freedom . Coste : Despite the current publishing frenzy , most people would rather know less .