We begin this appointment of the mediator with questions from the listeners on the crisis in Ukraine and the presence of “tens of thousands of Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian border”. Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs believes that the situation is very serious, that there will be military maneuvers in Belarus. Listeners are starting to write to us about it.
Emmanuelle Daviet: How do you cover this news?
Matthew Mondoloni, deputy editorial director of franceinfo : This news, on the franceinfo antenna, we cover it, like many others, by having journalists on site and journalists from the international editorial staff of Radio France. I also believe that Franck Mathevon will probably go there soon.
We also have franceinfo reporters who go there and we follow it from a distance, as usual, with many guests that we put on the air, who can report what is happening there, but also analyze it, since there are obviously a lot of diplomacy and strategic issues that also exist in this beginning of the conflict, hoping that it will not be one, at the end.
Frank Mathevon, deputy editor-in-chief of the international editorial staff of Radio France : We obviously try to go out into the field. To complete what Matthieu said, we are going to the field in Ukraine. We have an excellent correspondent in Moscow, Sylvain Tronchet who recently went to Ukraine, Crimea, with a long report from elsewhere, broadcast on franceinfo. Crimea, which is the last region seized by Russia in 2014.
And then, we also go to the countries of the region, the neighboring countries. We were in Romania this week, which is a neighboring country to Ukraine. We went to Lithuania, which is not quite next to Ukraine, but which is only separated from Ukraine by Belarus, and which is also hit by Russian pressure. So we try to be present on the ground as much as possible and then to provide expertise here in Paris with our experts. Also with a defense specialist, Biegala.
Emmanuelle Daviet: You can find all these reports on the franceinfo website.
Lots of messages from listeners this week about the situation in Canada and Ottawa. Listeners reproach us for not talking about it. We recall that last Saturday, thousands of people and hundreds of trucks blocked the downtown area of the Canadian federal capital. They oppose health measures and compulsory vaccination to cross the Canada-US border. “You don’t talk about it! Why?” the listeners ask us.
Franck Mathevon, Matthieu Mondoloni, do these criticisms seem justified to you?
Matthew Mondoloni: So no, but again, I mean. It’s normal, listeners don’t listen to the radio all day. We talked about it last week. We had a subject from our correspondent, one of our correspondents in Canada, Pascale Guéricolas, who told us precisely about the beginning of this blockade, of this occupation of trucks around the City of Ottawa. We also chronicled it.
We have a daily column made by Jean-Marc Four and the international editorial staff of Radio France on the air in the 17/20 of franceinfo. This was discussed at the beginning of the week, and we will continue to follow up with our correspondents on the spot. We are going to go even further since we know that now, even in France, it has been emulated. There are people who are interested in that, who even ask that we go and block Paris or Brussels from now on. There too, we did a report two days ago broadcast on the franceInfo antenna.
Frank Mathevon: It should be noted, however, that it was a movement exploited by far-right populist fringes, very anti-vaccines, even conspiracies. We also don’t want to give it too much importance. It is an important movement. There were up to 15,000 people last weekend. It is still a limited and minority movement, even if it is quite exceptional for Canada.
Reading the messages from the listeners, one really gets the impression that the listeners would have liked the journalists to skim through this news every day. Would this have been oversized as a blanket?
Frank Mathevon: No doubt, and I also think that Matthieu said it, we serialize in a certain way, since we speak about it regularly on the antenna of franceinfo and on the other antennas of Radio France. It is a movement that is important, once again, it is a movement that is fracturing Canadian society and which has a political impact. But it’s a movement that shouldn’t be given too much importance either at this stage, anyway.
Emmanuelle Daviet: We end with Mali, the military junta in power ordered the expulsion of the French ambassador. What difficulties do you face in covering this news?
Frank Mathevon: As for Ukraine, it is a conflict, since we can now speak of a conflict, between Mali and the French authorities. It is a conflict that we are partly following remotely with our Sahel specialists in Paris. And then with freelancers on site, we have two regular freelancers in Bamako.
We also try to go out into the field. This is where your question is interesting because it is becoming more and more difficult to travel to Mali. We would like to send someone to Mali in the coming days, and obtaining a visa is becoming more and more difficult. Despite everything, we cover this conflict as it should. Obviously, it’s a major conflict and it reflects the anti-French feeling in the Sahel right now.