French MPs from several parties tabled on Wednesday a bill aimed at guaranteeing the independence of newsrooms as Le Journal du Dimanche’s editorial staff has been on a 28-day strike to protest the appointment of far-right journalist Geoffroy Lejeune as editor-in-chief.
Lejeune, previously the head of the newsroom of the far-right magazine Valeurs Actuelles, was eventually ousted for holding an editorial line deemed too close to far-right candidate Éric Zemmour during the presidential elections.
Now journalists are opposing Lejeune’s appointment and demand guarantees of editorial and legal independence, as strikes of this scale and with continued overwhelming support – 96-98% each day – are unprecedented in the 75 years of the media’s history.
Lejeune’s appointment comes after the Lagardère group, which owns JDD, was taken over by Vivendi, the group owned by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
The European Commission cleared the takeover in early June on the condition that the publishing house Editis and the celebrity magazine Gala be sold off to avoid harming competition.
The Lagardère group, now controlled by Vivendi, which owns the Canal+ group, including the 24-hour news channel CNews, also owns Paris Match, the Europe 1 radio station and JDD. Lejeune’s appointment is seen as a direct intervention by Bolloré and has sparked a debate about the independence of the media and editorial staff.
In response to this, a dozen MPs belonging to several political groups, from the left and the presidential majority, have thus tabled a bill to guarantee journalists’ independence from media shareholders.
The bill proposes to create a right of approval enabling journalists to vote on the appointment of an editorial director.
To make this effective, the payment of public aid to the press would be made conditional on introducing this right. The granting of radio and television frequencies could also be subject to the same condition if the bill were adopted.
The main concern for the MPs is media concentration in the hands of a few billionaires, which they say is leading to a decline in pluralism in the press and the media.
“This law is necessary, but it is not enough”, acknowledged Sophie Taillé-Polian, an ecologist MP and signatory of the proposal, at a press conference on Wednesday morning.
According to Taillé-Polian, the measures in the proposal offer “a right of review or veto” to journalists in a newsroom so that they can oppose the arrival of a new director if they “consider that a particular personality cannot guarantee their respect for ethics and their intellectual and journalistic honesty”.
The proposal will likely not be debated for several months but in the meantime, French President Macron and the government have launched a broad public debate on the right to information, which will start from September.
Macron hopes this initiative will make it possible to combat “all attempts at interference and give journalists the best possible framework to fulfil their essential mission”.
(Davide Basso | EURACTIV.fr)
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