2023-07-19 14:53:12
The Journal du Dimanche (JDD) has not appeared for four weeks. The weekly’s journalists have been on strike for 28 days to protest against the arrival at the head of the newspaper of Geoffroy Lejeune, former editor of Valeurs Actuelles. At the direction of the JDD, they not only ask to give up this appointment but also demand “guarantees of legal and editorial independence”.
This Wednesday morning, after having renewed the strike by 98%, the JDD journalists gathered near the National Assembly where a cross-partisan bill aimed precisely “to protect the editorial freedom of the media seeking state aid was filed. The text is carried by deputies from eight parliamentary groups, excluding RN and LR, on the initiative of the ecologist deputy from Val-de-Marne Sophie Taillé-Polian. What’s in it?
A right to look
The bill aims to “condition direct and indirect aid to the press” and “the granting of DTT channels and radio frequencies” to “the establishment of a right of approval for journalists on the appointment of their director or editorial director ”, write the signatories in the press release.
Concretely, “we propose to give a right of approval to journalists so that they can, in the event of a change of their editorial director, oppose it”, explained the deputy at the microphone of LCP. The employees could thus express themselves and give their opinion by a vote, in the manner of what is already done in certain media (Le Monde, Liberation or Mediapart).
“If journalists consider that such and such a personality cannot guarantee respect for ethics and intellectual and journalistic honesty, it is the quality of their work that is called into question,” she indicated. This right of scrutiny over the appointment of the editorial director is a way of “giving particular power to employees who exercise a particular profession”, believes Sophie Taillé-Polian.
“Information is an indispensable stone for democracy. Giving them this right to protect the exercise within the framework of the ethics of their profession is essential to democracy, ”she insists. It is not a question, warns the deputy, of “questioning the ability of a shareholder to take shares in a media” but of guaranteeing that he “does not put it in his hands according to his ideas”.
Another bill to this effect
Already at the end of June, a collective of academics, publishers and intellectuals had published a forum in Le Monde in which they asked the public authorities to guarantee the independence of editorial staff by mentioning this right of approval. They recommended in particular that “to be eligible for press aid or the allocation of an audiovisual frequency, a media outlet must guarantee that the appointment of the managing editor must be approved by a two-thirds majority of the voting by all journalists, with a participation rate of at least 50%. In the event of non-accreditation, the candidate cannot be appointed. »
Last week, PS Senator David Assouline also filed a billsupported by the socialist group, aimed at guaranteeing “the independence of editorial staff” by allowing “subject to the validation of the editorial team the appointment of the editorial director”.
Faced with recent concerns about the editorial freedom of the media, the Élysée has for its part formalized the launch of the Estates General of Information in September, a campaign promise. Through this initiative, the outgoing president wanted to “fight against all attempts at interference and give journalists the best framework to fulfill their essential mission”, recalls The world.
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