A withdrawal, “at the request of management”. The Altice Media group, parent company of BFMTV and RMC, announced on Sunday January 23 the temporary withdrawal of its star presenter, Jean-Jacques Bourdin, accused of sexual assault. “This temporary withdrawal from the antenna will prevent political and media manipulation of this affair”, writes the group in a press release, specifying that “This decision was taken so as not to prejudice the daily operation of BFMTV and RMC”.
Altice “recalls that an internal investigation has been opened to ensure that no facts of this type have been brought to the attention of the company’s employees and managers”. The duration of Bourdin’s sidelining is not specified, nor its legal terms. “The political interview at 8:30 am, on BFMTV-RMC, will be provided by Apolline de Malherbe from Monday”, said the group, while the political program “France in the eyes”, on BFMTV, will be hosted by Bruce Toussaint.
“I regret the unilateral decision of the BFMTV Group and RMC to withdraw me from the antennas to prevent the risk of instrumentalization of the complaint of which I am the subject”, wrote the journalist in a statement sent Sunday by his lawyer. “I recall that I dispute the facts with which I am accused and deplore that the principle of the presumption of innocence is ignored.”
The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation against Jean-Jacques Bourdin on January 18 after a complaint was filed by a former BFMTV journalist. She denounces facts dating back to October 2013 and a business trip to Calvi (Haute-Corse). In her complaint, she says that one morning, between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., she goes to swim in the swimming pool of her hotel and is joined by Jean-Jacques Bourdin who swims at her level, grabs her by the neck while she no longer has a foot and tries several times to kiss him.
She claims that the star presenter then told her: “I always get what I want”. “I lived this last sentence as if he was warning me that sooner or later he would have what he wanted” and “as a threat from someone who had a hierarchical ascendancy over me”, she explains in her complaint. Implicated, Jean-Jacques Bourdin disputes the facts. The investigation was entrusted to the police station of the 16th arrondissement. It could lead to the finding that the facts are time-barred, since the time limit in this regard is six years, and the complaint dates from January 2022.
This case triggered a wave of reactions in the political class. Faced with the journalist on Tuesday evening as part of the program “La France dans les yeux”, the candidate Les Républicains for the presidential election, Valérie Pécresse, notably promised that “the law of silence is over”. On Friday, the environmental candidate, Yannick Jadot, canceled a scheduled interview with the journalist.