Last March, M6 broadcast a new issue ofExclusive inquiry. The report, dubbed Sex and love in West Africa, dealt with various subjects. Among them, the difficulty to fully experience one’s sexuality, especially when one is gay. For this, Bernard de la Villardière met a man in Senegal in his sixties. Months after the shooting, the latter accuses the production of not having been able to preserve his anonymity, and which led to an attack as revealed by our colleagues from Mediapart.
On screen, the voiceover clarifies that “young people have agreed to testify about their sexuality, in an undisclosed location“. Viewers had also learned that these witnesses had “also required to remain anonymous“. Finally, this sexagenarian believes that the deal has not been respected. “Before the shooting, we had agreed to do the entire interview in my apartment. I had to look for the reporters and the presenter just around the corner, but as soon as they got out of the car, they started filming without anyone’s permission, remembers this gay rights activist. I didn’t know they were going to box what I said on the street because I thought everything had to happen inside. If I had known that, I would never have answered.“
Witness assaulted at his home, asylum and a 5-figure sum claimed
It was then that he was recognized and targeted: “Homophobes who lived in my neighborhood, who saw the show, shared it with everyone to say that I was a notorious homosexual, who had to be eliminated (…). They screwed up my life, if they had respected the commitments and not diffused my street, I would never have left my country.“Because, for information, the activist who went to France on the occasion of a conference on HIV is asking for asylum there. A decision taken after an attack that occurred at his home, as his daughter says. “As soon as I opened the door, they jumped on me, pushed me around, started looking for my father everywhere, putting everything on the floor. They asked me where he was“, we learn. In addition to wanting to leave Senegal to take refuge in France, the man claims 10,000 euros in compensationvia his lawyer.
Last March, M6 had already replied to the witness’s lawyer: “Regarding the passage turned into the street where he resides, contrary to your assertion, the journalist asked your client well beforehand whether it was possible to film him in the street, which he accepted by answering Bernard de La Villardière’s questions; during this interview, he specified that his neighborhood was ‘completely tolerant’ and that his landlady knew of his situation but that she was ‘gay-friendly’. Also, we consider that we have not failed in our obligations.” More recently, the production ofExclusive inquiry was joined by Mediapart and indicated that he did not believe in the assault recounted.