After nearly ten years denouncing certain comments made on private radio stations in the Quebec City region, the Sortons les radios poubelles coalition says it has been forced to close its Facebook page, while the owners of CHOI Radio X are threatening to start procedures to require group administrators to disclose their identity. The latter see it as a roundabout way of muzzling them, which they find ironic coming from a radio station that has made freedom of expression its trademark.
“Radio X is once again trampling on freedom of expression. They don’t give a damn about freedom of speech. They are bullies, ”proclaims an administrator of the page in an interview with The duty. Presenting himself under the assumed name of Étienne Lantier, he argues that anonymity is “guaranteed by the charters”, citing as an example judgments going in this direction, such as the invalidation in 2016 of the ban on demonstrating while wearing a mask.
Étienne Lantier is the pseudonym used by the administrators of Sortons les radios poubelles, in reference to a character from Germinal, Émile Zola, who cares about the fate of workers. The members of the group fight to be able to continue to conceal their real identity, for fear of reprisals.
“Everyone who attacked Quebec radio stations paid the price. Anonymity is what protects us, ”we say, referring to Jean-François Jacob, a Desjardins employee who lost his job in 2013 after creating a site hostile to opinion radio stations in the capital. national.
Against disinformation
For the members of Sortons les radios poubelles, the Quebec radio scene has changed very little. Admittedly, we recognize that the stars of the airwaves are no longer used to catching a single individual with the flu, since the former weather presenter Sophie Chiasson won the case in 2005 against the host Jeff Fillion after being the target of repeated insults.
But the administrators of the coalition observe that this hatred is now transposed to groups in society, such as cyclists, artists or environmentalists, so as to avoid trouble with the law.
“We don’t mind the fact that it’s a right-wing radio station, that’s not the problem. We are against the style of the “garbage radio”. We must respect the ethics of journalism. Journalists must verify the information, must ensure that different points of view are reflected. But them [les animateurs], they are doing the exact opposite of that, ”continues Étienne Lantier, recalling that controversial comments on the pandemic have been repeatedly echoed over the microphone of CHOI Radio X.
To back up their claims, the activists behind Sortons les radios poubelles had gotten into the habit, since the creation of the collective in 2012, of broadcasting on their YouTube account excerpts from radio broadcasts they considered problematic. However, YouTube closed their profile last spring after receiving several reports of copyright infringement.
The reuse of excerpts for the purpose of criticism is, however, clearly authorized under the Canadian Copyright Act. But Trash Out administrators believe CHOI Radio X listeners and executives have successfully lodged repeated complaints with YouTube, in a way that forced their accounts to be deleted.
They feared that the same fate would be in store for their Facebook page in order to force them to give their real name. They finally preferred to remove it at the end of December.
Sortons les radios poubelles remains active on its website and on Twitter, which is less inclined than Facebook to lift the anonymity of its members in the event of reports.
Injunction
RNC Media, owner of CHOI Radio X, has in fact been stepping up its efforts over the past few months to find out who is behind Let’s take out the trash. She believes she has a right to know, considering that the members of the collective engage in intimidation when they call on the population to personally contact the companies that have bought advertising on the station.
“From the moment when companies become the collateral victims of a movement piloted by trolls, the line of the unacceptable has been crossed”, one could read in a press release of RNC published following the filing of ‘an injunction at the end of June.
RNC did not wish to react to the deletion of the Sortons les poubelles Facebook page, referring us to this press release.
On the side of the collective, we retort that the campaign targeting advertisers has never aimed to fuel intimidation against them, the goal being quite simply to encourage them to withdraw their advertisements.
Owner of the restaurant La Bête in the Sainte-Foy sector, Christian Veilleux doubts it, he who considers having paid the costs unfairly for this initiative.
“I must have received hundreds of hate emails over the past 3-4 years. I find that deplorable ”, he says, without wishing to show examples of these messages when questioned by The duty.
“It was not a political choice that we made, it was a commercial choice,” continues this restaurateur who has chosen Jeff Fillion to be his spokesperson. As a trader, I want to fill my establishment. So, we are definitely going to place ads in the places that are listened to the most. “
Christian Veilleux will therefore not mourn the deletion of the Sortons les radios poubelles Facebook page. According to him, it would be the least that the administrators of the group work with with their visors raised, to be at least on an equal footing with those they point the finger at.
“I find it very ordinary that these are chicken that hide behind a page, he slices. Me, everyone knows who I am. Everyone knows that I decided to buy advertising on Radio X. You want to have an opinion: no problem. But, say who you are. “