Journalists at France’s main Sunday newspaper introduced Tuesday that they had been ending one of many longest media strikes in latest French historical past, however they predicted that dozens may resign to protest the appointment of an editor with a far-right observe document as the brand new editor in chief.
The employees of Le Journal du Dimanche, recognized for its interviews with authorities leaders and largely centrist coverage evaluation, stated it had determined to name off a 40-day walkout after it turned clear that the paper’s soon-to-be new proprietor, the French billionaire Vincent Bolloré, wouldn’t rescind the appointment. Staff members stated that they had little alternative however to work with the brand new management or depart their jobs.
The new editor, Geoffroy Lejeune, who previously led a far-right French journal that was fined for publishing racist insults, was scheduled to take up his new submit on Tuesday. Word of his appointment at The JDD, because the paper is thought, had ignited a firestorm in French media and political circles, elevating issues {that a} main mainstream news outlet could possibly be reworked right into a right-wing platform. Before the uproar, about 100 journalists labored on the Paris paper.
“Today, Geoffroy Lejeune takes office. He will enter an empty newsroom,” the JDD journalists’ union stated in a press release. “Dozens of journalists are refusing to work with him and will leave The JDD.”
The paper has been absent from newsstands for six weeks — solely the second time it has missed publication in its 75-year historical past — since journalists walked out in mid-June after Mr. Lejeune was abruptly appointed simply forward of Mr. Bolloré’s takeover. This summer season, Mr. Bolloré is about to safe a majority stake in Lagardère Group, a conglomerate that owns The JDD and Paris Match journal.
In a press release, the Lagardère Group stated the weekly print editions would resume publication in mid-August.
The journalists’ union stated Mr. Lejeune’s backing of a right-leaning editorial line, together with anti-immigrant language and assist for the far-right author and presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, mirrored values that had been “in total contradiction with those of the JDD.” Mr. Lejeune, 34, has not issued any public statements aside from a short Twitter message saying he was honored to take the helm. The right-leaning journal Valeurs Actuelles fired him final yr amid dispute with the proprietor over editorial course.
The drama at The JDD revived longstanding issues over press freedom in a rustic the place over four-fifths of privately owned newspapers and TV and radio stations are owned by French or overseas billionaires or financiers.
After quite a few protests by JDD journalists and a letter of assist signed by a whole bunch of lecturers, economists, cultural figures and left-leaning politicians, Parliament is contemplating a measure that will permit journalists at newspapers that acquired authorities subsidies, resembling The JDD, to have a say over the selection of editor in chief. President Emmanuel Macron additionally introduced a sequence of public hearings in September on the way to strengthen press independence.
The JDD’s direct proprietor, the Lagardère conglomerate, which primarily reviews to Mr. Bolloré, stated it alone had the appropriate to put in a brand new editor.
The episode drew recent consideration to Mr. Bolloré, a politically linked industrialist who is commonly described as France’s Rupert Murdoch. He hails from traditionalist Catholic circles in Brittany and has been steadily constructing a conservative media empire, anchored by a Fox News-style community, CNews. Several mainstream news retailers that he has purchased have been reworked into right-leaning platforms, with longtime journalists swept out and changed with new editorial traces that analysts say align with Mr. Bolloré’s political convictions.
The journalists’ union stated a majority of JDD’s employees members had been prone to depart. Some, it stated, are forming an affiliation to push for adjustments in France’s legislative framework governing the press, “in order to guarantee the independence of editorial staff and the protection of journalists in the exercise of their profession.”
“Today we lost a battle, but our fight is not over,” the union added in its assertion. “At the end of this historic strike, we draw this conclusion: Faced with the power of shareholders, journalists can only rely on the law.”
Source: www.nytimes.com