Your article has a couple of problems...
The release of Red Cross information to the press was not a "departure from its traditional rule of confidential contacts." It was done over the Red Cross' stringent objections. "Leaked," if you will.
The difficult issue of ICRC confidentiality is discussed in this article.
If you read my link, which was actually from the Red Cross, not the French press, private visits have apparently been policy from day one.
I wonder if you took a survey of Americans exposed to the media blasts on this subject, asking if they believed the Red Cross had access to Guantanamo, what the results would be?
Were you aware they had been there since the first?