2023-10-09 13:54:56
Jean-Pierre Elkabbach has succeeded “in being of his time and ours”. These words are from Emmanuel Macron. The President of the Republic this Monday greeted a journalist who was a “formidable interviewer”, during a tribute at the headquarters of France Télévisions, contested internally, in honor of his former boss who died last Tuesday. He was “a journalist who wanted to carry the pen, the nagra (a portable sound recorder used in radio), the camera in the wounds of the time,” added the President of the Republic. The main building of the France Télévisions headquarters was also renamed “Maison Jean-Pierre Elkabbach”.
“He wanted to be part of it, of his time (…) of the history that is written and told, transmitted and remains,” declared Emmanuel Macron, in front of an audience of political and media personalities, notably Delphine Ernotte, CEO of France Télévisions, or even the journalist Alain Duhamel. “Jean-Pierre Elkabbach ultimately succeeds in being one of them, in being of his time and ours,” he continued. He also praised him as a man who wanted to “be a reference when he was criticized for his reverences”.
Resigned from France TV in 1996
He estimated that upon his arrival in December 1993 at the head of France 2 and France 3, Jean-Pierre Elkabbach “dared”, putting forward the host Nagui, Arthur and Jean-Luc Delarue. “This audacity for him was priceless, it was undoubtedly beyond price for the time,” he added.
After the revelation of the contracts worth hundreds of millions of francs awarded to these star producer-hosts, Jean-Pierre Elkabbach was forced to resign in 1996. “He squandered the funds of France Télévisions! “, said a woman at the end of the head of state’s speech, to which the latter responded: “freedom of expression is not incompatible with the spirit of decency.”
In two separate press releases, the SNJ (main union of the profession) of France TV and the Society of Journalists of the National Editorial Office indicated that they were not participating in the ceremony. The first considers that management’s choice to rename the company’s main building after the journalist is a “premature decision” which “does not achieve consensus”. The second, that it is “impossible to hide the gray areas of his career”, in particular that Jean-Pierre Elkabbach, at the end of his career had “become an advisor to Vincent Bolloré and a journalist for CNews”.
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