2023-06-25 13:09:00
The drafting of JDD is on strike renewable until Tuesday, after the announcement of the appointment of Geoffroy Lejeune as editorial director.
By MP with AFP “I understand the concerns of its editorial staff. In law, the JDD can become what it wants, as long as it respects the law. But for our republican values how not to be alarmed? asked the Minister of Culture. © XOSE BOUZAS / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP Published on 06/25/2023 at 1:09 p.m.
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A Sunday without sound Sunday newspaper : several left-wing politicians as well as the Minister of Culture have expressed their deep concern about the situation at the JDD, on strike against the arrival of a director marked on the far right.
The editorial staff renewed its strike almost unanimously until next Wednesday, in an attempt to prevent the planned arrival at the head of the JDD, now controlled by Vincent Bolloré, by Geoffroy Lejeune, who had just been made redundant by Valeurs Actuelles. The movement paralyzed the website, before preventing the release of the paper edition on Sunday, an extremely rare event in the history of the influential weekly, scrutinized in the political world for its Sunday interviews.
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“My Sunday ritual was to wake up with the JDD “, said Rima Abdul-Malak on social networks. “I understand the concerns of its editorial staff. In law, the JDD can become whatever he wants, as long as he respects the law. But for our republican values how not to be alarmed? “, she continued.
A wording regretted by the boss of Mediapart, Edwy Plenel: “A capitalist who owns a medium should not be able to do “whatever he wants” with it. By not respecting the independence of editorial staff, it is attacking a fundamental right, freedom of information,” he retorted.
Like him, media economics specialist Julia Cagé pointed out that the JDD received public aid from the state. She called on the Minister of Culture to “use this lever”: “You cannot accept that the independence of journalists is thus trampled on (…) The good health of democracy in France depends on it” .
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Declarations which join the main demand of the employees on strike: that the direction gives up appointing Geoffroy Lejeune director of the drafting. “The drafting of JDD refuses to be led by a man whose ideas are in total contradiction with the values of the newspaper,” said the Society of Journalists (SDJ).
They fear that a method already denounced elsewhere in the media controlled by Vincent Bolloré will be repeated: waltz of the leaders and interventions on the editorial line, fear that it will switch to the far right, at the cost of a possible haemorrhage of journalists .
Strikers supported by the profession
They have received extensive support from the profession: around thirty journalists’ associations from the major media, including France Télévisions, Le Figaro, The world, The Parisian, ReleaseRadio France or even Paris Matchgave them their support, in a column published on Mediapart Sunday.
The leader of the CGT Sophie Binet expressed her “total support for the journalists of the JDD “, believing that” the extension of the media empire of Bolloré (was) a serious danger for democracy “.
A concern widely shared on the left, where several political leaders have denounced the supposed ambition of the billionaire, who now controls several major media (such as Canal +, Paris Match, Europe 1 and CNews) to prepare the ground for a takeover of the extreme right in the run-up to the 2027 presidential election.
Green MP Sandrine Rousseau supported the employees and Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said he was “very worried about pluralism”.
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An upcoming bill
“Today we have a problem of concentration in the hands (…) of Vincent Bolloré, it’s a whole galaxy that puts itself at the service of a man and at the service of an ambition, an ideology” , he continued on Radio J. “The ambition is to conquer power, I remind you that Vincent Bolloré was behind Eric Zemmour’s candidacy for the last presidential election”.
He called for new legislation to guarantee freedom of the press, with Socialists working in parliament on a bill on the subject. “Now we probably need to legislate again to allow editorial independence, to ensure that no editorial director can be appointed by the shareholders or, in any case, that he receives the consent of the editorial staff. same,” he said.
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