2023-12-27 13:12:23
She is nicknamed “the first lady of Nice”. Laura Tenoudji, columnist for the Télématin show on France 2 for more than 20 years, is the subject of two reports sent to the courts due to her presence during public and cultural events organized in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), city of which her husband Christian Estrosi has been mayor since 2008, our colleagues from Mediapart.
For several months, her presence in various events has raised questions about possible conflicts of interest between the 47-year-old journalist and events organized, at least in part, by the city of Nice, assure a territorial official and elected environmentalists who made these reports.
A conflict of interest around Junior Eurovision
The first is linked to the presence of Laura Tenoudji at the opening ceremony of Junior Eurovision 2023, which took place in the City of Angels. On November 20, a week before the competition, a ceremony was organized at the Negresco hotel in Nice to welcome all the young participants in this song competition reserved for 9-14 year olds.
The municipality of Nice largely financed the organization of the Junior Eurovision contest. The sum of “605,000 euros” was notably covered by the city, via “indirect aid”, a decision voted on by the municipal council in November.
“It cannot therefore be disputed that Madame Tenoudji was paid by France 2 for her service as presenter of Junior Eurovision, partially financed by the community chaired by her husband,” summarizes one of the two reports sent to the courts. According to Mediapart, this was carried out by a territorial official and “sent to the courts through a Nice lawyer” at the beginning of December.
Poor English and factual errors
French Internet users did not hesitate to make a connection between her presence on the air and the fact that she is married to the mayor of the city, who also welcomed the delegations that evening. In addition to broken English criticized by French and foreign Internet users, Laura Tenoudji, responsible for a brief presentation of the candidates, was singled out for having confused the Georgian and Irish delegations.
In a video of the ceremony, she can be seen reading a text about Irish candidate Jessica McKean, who represented her country solo, while at her side are Georgian candidates Anastasia and the duo Ranina, flags of their country by hand. At the end of the sequence, she corrects herself by saying that it is the Georgian delegation and apologizes for her mistake.
She “had been appointed by France Télévisions Studio, the production company of the parent company, to co-host this opening ceremony,” underlines Mediapart. The announcement was made in September, in a press release of the audiovisual group which detailed the system planned around the event.
Unfounded reports according to Christian Estrosi’s lawyer
Laura Tenoudji told our colleagues at Mediapart that she was not paid in addition to her monthly salary as a columnist: “Instead of providing my columns for Télématin that week I was relocated for Junior Eurovision . The question of conflict of interest therefore does not arise,” she replied. Nice town hall simply responded to the investigation site that “the regulatory framework (had) been perfectly respected”. To Le Parisien, the city assures that it was France Télévisions which requested the journalist and “that Christian Estrosi is completely unrelated to the choice of France Télévisions to use one of its columnists”.
This is not the first time that Laura Tenoudji finds herself on the front line of events organized in Nice. A first report was sent to the courts in September by three elected environmentalists from the town hall and the metropolis. They denounced the use of the journalist to host two round tables at the “Nice Climate Summit”, an event co-organized by the municipality and the newspaper La Tribune, with which she sometimes collaborates. Faced with the controversy, she finally gave up. Here again, assures the town hall, Laura Tenoudji “had been asked in her capacity as a professional journalist by the daily newspaper La Tribune to simply host two round tables”.
Furthermore, his presence in a short program called “Bleu, Blanc, Rouge” and “developed in partnership with France 2030, an investment plan launched in 2021 by the executive”, notes Mediapart, had also raised eyebrows at his employer France Televisions. According to the investigation site, the information department of the public broadcasting group “discussed with the person concerned the ethical rules so that the situation does not happen again”.
Christian Estrosi’s lawyer, Maître Olivier Baratelli, specifies that neither Christian Estrosi nor Laura Tenoudji “are targeted by justice” but that “the Nice public prosecutor is in the process of carrying out a simple evaluation of the two reports which were made. No preliminary police or gendarmerie investigation is therefore underway. » Reports that the council considers completely unfounded.
#Laura #Tenoudji #Christian #Estrosi #reports #conflicts #interest #courts