2023-12-05 01:22:45
A “bias” like no other for his column at the start of the week. This Monday, December 4, Ruth Elkrief spoke on LCI about the threats she has received over the past 24 hours, following a message posted by Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the social network X (formerly Twitter). At issue: a muscular interview on Sunday with Manuel Bompard, another figure of rebellious France.
“Criticizing a journalist is legitimate. It was not a criticism but an aggression,” David Pujadas initially indicated. “I did not wish for this controversy and I regret it but it imposed itself on me,” explained Ruth Elkrief, thanking all the people who gave her their support, from “all political families” and “of all editorial lines”.
Because on Sunday, the leader of the far left did not hide his dissatisfaction after his colleague’s interview. “Ruth Elkrief. Manipulative. If we don’t insult Muslims, this fanatic is indignant. What a shame ! Well done Manuel Bompard for the reply. Elkrief reduces all political life to his contempt for Muslims,” he wrote. In the process, the journalist received numerous hate messages, pushing Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin to place her under police protection.
“What is at stake concerns us all,” says the interviewer. This is about defending the freedom of journalists to ask questions that displease. I have always conceived this profession in terms of listening and respecting others but, at the same time, I have always thought that it was my duty to ask difficult, sensitive questions, to everyone, without exception. No one is sufficiently aware of it but we are lucky in France to keep a rich and free debate alive. And this is what we all defend together: the right to ask questions with the space given to the answer, completely freely and with respect, in a fair manner, with a relationship between politician and journalist in a democratic framework. and respectful. »
She says she is hurt “as a female journalist”
Then, Ruth Elkrief returned to her personal journey to respond to Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “I was raised in Morocco, with knowledge and intimate affection for Jewish, Muslim and Christian cultural and religious traditions,” she said. And this is precisely why I believe that only the secular republic, even if it is mistreated and contested, allows us to live in harmony. There is a condition: to define oneself by one’s citizenship and not by one’s religion or one’s origins and not to be referred to it by others (…) I apply this condition to myself and to all my fellow citizens, regardless of they are and whom I deeply respect. »
Furthermore, Ruth Elkrief said she was hurt “as a woman journalist because people seemed to discredit my way of doing my job”. With “very rigorous” ethics, according to her. “It is to ask the questions whatever they may be, even when they are annoying, and to listen with respect and sincerity to the answer because I believe in the sincerity of democracy,” she continued. We need debates, discussions, contradictions. I respect the policy. I like politics. »
According to her, Manuel Bompard emerged “satisfied” from this Sunday’s interview. “When I ask questions about French Muslims, it is with heart and sincerity because I consider that this Republic today emancipates us all and gives us the opportunity to develop and not be sent back to our religion alone “, she added. Before assuring LCI viewers with a smile: “It is first and foremost as a journalist that I look at what is happening and it is as a journalist that from this evening onwards, I continue to work in the same way . »
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