Vincent Bolloré enters the Swedish media market
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fullscreenVincent Bolloré. Photo: Kamil Zihnioglu / AP
The other day I looked on CNews. A French TV channel that resembles Fox News in every way. Unabashed and brutal opinion journalism. Guest in the studio today – Eric Zemmourthe man who challenges Marine Le Pen from a position even further to the right. This time, Zemmour again attacked Muslims, who were collectively singled out as violent Islamists. Zemmour is a regular guest on CNews, which is owned by one of France’s richest and most influential business groups.
It is relatively unknown in Sweden. If you say Murdoch everyone knows. But if you say the name Bolloré, most people shake their heads questioningly.
The multi-billionaire Vincent Bolloré is very good friends with Éric Zemmour. And with Bolloré’s capital, Zemmour’s views gain media coverage. Not just in television, but in a comprehensive media conglomerate.
Vincent Bolloré’s latest investment concerns Viaplay.
Late on Thursday evening, July 20, 2023, French Canal+ announced that it had bought 12 percent of the shares in the struggling Viaplay.
Ownership structures are often complicated. And Bolloré’s name did not appear on any flyers or headlines when the unexpected deal was announced.
Here it is it to: Canal+ is owned by the French media group Vivendi, which in turn is controlled by Vincent Bolloré. This wide-ranging conglomerate includes the advertising agency group Havas, the newspaper publisher Prisma Media, the video site Dailymotion, the game developer Gameloft and the media company Lagardère with the radio channels Europe 1, Europe 2, the radio station RFM. In addition, newspapers such as Paris Match and Le Journal de Dimanche. Canal+ operates pay TV in around 50 countries and has close to 30 million subscribers.
pullquoteIn addition to the picture, Vincent Bolloré himself has a close relationship with Vladimir Putin
This is what the 70-year-old financier and multi-billionaire Vincent Bolloré’s empire looks like. If we add up all his ownership, the numbers are on a par with the biggest global media giants. The French Bolloré Group has an annual turnover of approximately SEK 170 billion and 80,000 employees.
It is thus a French Murdoch who has now entered Sweden without anyone even raising an eyebrow. Vincent Bolloré has increased his ownership to 30 percent of the shares in Viaplay after the specially convened general meeting. Together with the Czech investment company PPF, which also owns 30 percent, these two now have all the power over Viaplay. PPF is known as the company that bought Vattenfall’s lignite plants in Germany and has significant business with Russia. The picture includes that Vincent Bolloré himself has a close relationship with Vladimir Putin. Bolloré has openly criticized NATO and the EU and accused them of provoking the war in Ukraine.
Among Viaplay’s owners there is also Aftonbladet’s owner, Norwegian Schibsted, who tried to buy his way into a position of power, but has now lost that battle.
Viaplay has a television selection with basically only sports and other entertainment. What is the problem with a Vincent Bolloré, he has only in his French media given right-wing politicians their own media megaphone? The answer: that a media owner who does not shy away from using his media channels for political propaganda obviously sees no sacred line between his ownership and the journalistic activity. After all, there is nothing that says that focus is limited to a single country when you have operations internationally.
The traces of Vincent Bolloré are terrifying.
First example. In connection with the French presidential election in 2022, Éric Zemmour had a prime-time appearance on Bolloré’s channel CNews. Once in an hour long program with straight racist attacks without any counter questions. The impact was powerful. Zemmour rose to fourth place in the first round of voting. He has since continued to spread his attacks against immigrants. In that context, he has so far been convicted of defamation twice.
Second example. Last year, the journalists at the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche went on strike when Vincent Bolloré appointed a new editor-in-chief drawn from the right-wing newspaper Valeurs actuelles, which also has a close association with Éric Zemmour.
In France there is an ongoing discussion about the “extreme right-wing of the media”. Vincent Bolloré gives unilateral media space to his political like-minded people and he controls the newsrooms with his chief appointments.
Here with us there is mostly silence. There seems to rest some kind of naive idyll over Sweden and the view of media owners. Both in the present and in the past. Not even when Jan Stenbeck as a co-owner of TV4 tried to get this newly started TV channel to push the yes line in the EU vote in 1994, there was some major discussion. The demand was made at a board meeting and leaked to the media a few years later.
pullquote Is it Vincent Bolloré’s application of freedom of expression as a one-sided opinion corridor far to the right that should apply?
When the same Stenbeck then wanted to buy ads in TV4 where they would smear the then Minister of Culture Marita Ulvskog (S) only a few raised their eyebrows. I’ve written about both events and both times noted how quickly things went quiet. There was a certain noise momentarily when Hans-Jacob Bonnier called and asked me to stop a Kalla Fakta report Johan Åsard about Queen Silvia’s father, Walther Sommerlath, and his active involvement in the German Nazi Party before and during World War II. This happened in the middle of 2012. However, as usual quickly resurrected idyllic location.
Only Sweden has Swedish gooseberries. And similarly we seem to imagine ourselves with our media owners. Now Vincent Bolloré is no Swedish gooseberry. But his media exercise of power is reminiscent of how the Sweden Democrats build up their own media channels and demand control and dismantling of public services. SD runs its Riks TV as if it were a French CNews. So far on a small scale. But now SD gets an ideological comrade as the main owner of Viaplay.
What are the risks? Is it Vincent Bolloré’s application of freedom of expression as a one-sided opinion corridor far to the right that should apply? And do we usually choose to close our eyes, cover our ears and say nothing?