A very first journalism festival will be launched in the country next spring, in the Baie-des-Chaleurs region. In a context of crisis of confidence in the media, the event aims to create a meeting between journalists and citizens to exchange information and the state of the world.
“We are going through a very complicated period. The media are changing, and there is a real break between them and citizens. […] It is urgent to talk to each other, to understand each other, to criticize each other too. You have to explain to people that information is a public good and that it concerns them directly,” said journalist and general manager of the festival, Bertin Leblanc, in an interview. He must officially announce the creation of this new meeting during a press conference on Monday.
The first edition of the Carleton-sur-Mer International Journalism Festival (FIJC) will be held from May 18 to 21, 2023, in Gaspésie, as its name suggests. Mr. Leblanc was determined to organize it in his native region. The festival will then return there each year, the weekend before National Patriots’ Day.
The invitation will be extended to people from different backgrounds: Canadian and foreign journalists, media directors, teaching staff, researchers, students, and especially the general public. “We really want to create a user-friendly citizen forum on the subject of journalism”, underlines the director general.
We are going through a complicated period. The media are changing, and there is a real break between them and citizens. […] It is urgent to talk to each other, to understand each other, to self-criticize too. You have to explain to people that information is a public good and that it concerns them directly.
A long-standing idea
The idea of creating such an event had been in his head for several years. The reporter, who has worked for a long time in Europe – notably in Paris for Radio-Canada – has taken part in several journalism festivals which have greatly inspired him. He gives as an example the International Journalism Festival of Couthures-sur-Garonne, in France, which is in its 6e editing. Or the International Journalism Festival which has been held in Perugia, Italy, for 16 years.
“I’ve always found it odd that there is no meeting of this type in Canada. Yes, we have the annual convention of the FPJQ [Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec] in Quebec, which allows us to reflect on our profession, but it remains very corporate. These discussions need to be decompartmentalized,” he said.
In the past year, he has multiplied the steps to find funding and partnerships, and set up an NPO to bring his project to life. The programming still remains to be done, but Bertin Leblanc already has a good idea of what will await the participants next May: meetings, debates, cinema, photo exhibitions, theater, all in connection with journalism and current events in the hour.
He gives a few more specific examples, such as setting up a show based on stories that were told by journalists and performed by a local theater group. He would also like to organize cinema evenings, with the screening of films related to journalism such as Illusions lost, with Xavier Dolan, recently released, or the film Camille (2019) which tells the story of the French photo-reporter Camille Lepage, killed in the Central African Republic in the exercise of her profession.
“There will also be a ‘blame the damn journalists’ section where someone whose life has been impacted by the press will be invited to tell their story and discuss it with those who have reported on them.” , he says, giving as an example the former Liberal minister Nathalie Normandeau, now host at 98.5 FM.
“In summary, there will be a great deal of entertainment,” adds the general manager. I didn’t want us to just end up with panels of talking heads. To attract the public, it takes entertainment. »
” A bet “
Attracting audiences from outside the Gaspé region is indeed one of his main challenges, he acknowledges. “Doing it in Carleton-sur-Mer is a gamble. I understand that there may be a blockage because it’s far from major centers, but I’m sure we can get there. By choosing a long weekend, it will allow people to have time to get around, to convince them to spend time in the region,” says Mr. Leblanc, who is even considering chartering buses that will leave from Montreal and of Quebec.
Sponsor of this first edition, the former journalist and international columnist Jean-François Lépine remains as confident about the popularity that the festival will be able to have even while being held in Carleton-sur-Mer. “It is an extraordinary region to discover. She is also very much associated with René Lévesque, who was a very great journalist before becoming head of government. I’m sure that people will move, that we will succeed in making them want to participate, ”he says, delighted to take on this role of adviser for the event.