The billionaire is used to social conflicts in the media that he buys. After having brought the editorial staff of Cnews, Canal + and Europe 1 to heel, the boss of the Bolloré empire is now attacking the “Journal du Dimanche”, a benchmark for the French press.
Vincent Bolloré does it again. Originally specializing in stationery, the businessman began building his media empire nearly ten years ago, in 2014, by becoming chairman of the Vivendi group’s supervisory board, and of the same coup of its subsidiary Canal+. Recently, the billionaire has extended his web by launching a takeover bid (takeover bid) on the media of the Lagardère group. After the validation of the operation by the European Commission, the ultra-conservative boss came into conflict with the drafting of the JDD.
With the announcement of the arrival at the head of the weekly of Geoffroy Lejeune, who came from the far-right magazine Current valuesthe employees of the JDD fear to see repeating a method already denounced elsewhere: waltz of the leaders and interventions on the editorial line, at the cost of a haemorrhage within the teams of journalists. Vincent Bolloré has always refused to use the media he controls to promote his opinions. However, the entrepreneur has built a media empire by force, not hesitating to punish the recalcitrant.
At Canal +, programs in the closet and multiple layoffs
The first significant conflict linked to Vincent Bolloré dates back to the bringing to heel of Canal+, a channel which he took control from 2015. In the fall of that year, an investigation into Crédit Mutuel was deprogrammed from the grid. “We all know that Mr. Bolloré can be authoritarian, but I don’t understand why he took the decision to censor this film”, reacts at the time Nicolas Vescovacci, co-author of the documentary. Michel Lucas, the head of the bank, “directly called Bolloré to express his dissatisfaction”tell to Vice Jean-Baptiste Rivoire, former deputy editor of the program “Spécial Investigation”, which was to broadcast the documentary.
“The management torpedoes this film and deprograms it behind our backs. It was appalling. We didn’t have the information, we were considered idiots.”
Jean-Baptiste Rivoire, former deputy editor of the program “Spécial Investigation”in Vice
These criticisms do not pass. A few months later, the Canal+ investigative program was removed from the air, as were the television news and “Zapping”, a 27-year-old pellet which had attacked, in images, the new direction. Canal+ removes half of its free-to-air broadcasts and claims to want “putting value back into the subscription”. The satirical puppets “Les Guignols de l’info” will also be shelved, Vincent Bolloré accusing them of a “abuse of derision”.
The authoritarianism of the new owner of the chain does not stop there. In 2020, the dismissal of comedian Sébastien Thoen from the sports department sparked a wave of support and the departure of some 25 employees. His wrong? Having participated in a parody of “L’heure des Pros”, Pascal Praud’s show on CNews. In the process, the sports journalist Stéphane Guy will be dismissed for having delivered, during a live football match, a message of support for Sébastien Thoen.
Three freelance journalists from the encrypted channel’s sports editorial staff are also fired for signing a text of support for the comedian, the site revealed at the time. Days. The petition ended with these words: “We claim the right to exercise our trades without fear of being fired, dismissed, worried if what we say, write, displeases our management.”
At i-Télé, a historic strike and a very right turn
This is the example that today haunts the employees of the JDD. In 2016, the team of the Canal+ group’s news channel, i-Télé, began a standoff with the parent company, asking for guarantees of independence and protesting against a drastic reduction in staff. The arrival on the air of Jean-Marc Morandini, indicted for “aggravated corruption of minors”, also sets fire to the powder.
The employees carried out a high-profile strike for 31 days against inflexible leaders. Obtaining only meager concessions, exhausted by this long social conflict, they end up signing a memorandum of understanding. “It’s not a victory. But what should be remembered is the density of the movement”explains Jean-Jérôme Bertolus, who chose to leave the channel, like around thirty other journalists among the 120 that the channel had at the time. “We should have had an additional month of strikeexplains one of them to Release. But we are not equipped for that. We are not 300, we do not have 50 union members in the box and many leaders have already left…”
The channel was renamed CNews and took a very right turn in the following years. She was particularly singled out during the last presidential campaign for the disproportionate airtime granted to Eric Zemmour, when the far-right polemicist, ex-editorialist star of the channel, was preparing his candidacy.
At Europe 1, an imposed rapprochement with CNews
Vincent Bolloré decides in the spring of 2021 to bring together Europe 1 and its CNews channel. Worried about a change of editorial line to the right, the radio employees also began a strike. At the same time, Christine Berrou, a humorist at the station, announces her resignation, because management has ordered her to remove a joke about Eric Zemmour from a column. She tells to Telerama that the presenter of the morning for which his column was intended, “caution” possible repercussions, “in [lui] explaining that last week, a journalist was summoned by management for a launch sending a small spade to Eric Zemmour”.
Over the weeks, dozens of journalists left the station, forced or of their own free will. Today, Europe 1 and CNews share several headliners, such as Laurence Ferrari and Sonia Mabrouk. Expected by many for the start of the school year, an arrival on Europe 1 of Pascal Praud, pillar of CNews, would mark a new stage in this rapprochement dreaded by radio employees.
In the magazines of Prisma Media, degraded working conditions
The acquisition in May 2021 of the leading magazine press group in France, Prisma Media (Tele-Leisure, Current wife, Capital…), causes a wave of departures. Worried in particular about a deterioration in their working conditions after the takeover of Vivendi, journalists are asserting their transfer clause, which allows in the event of a change of shareholder to leave while benefiting from severance pay. In six months, around sixty employees and freelancers left the group. Nothing to worry about the Breton industrialist, who believes that journalists work “like the sea” : when a wave leaves, another returns.
At “Paris Match”, a disputed change of line
AT Paris Match, the changes did not take long. The year 2022 is marked by the dismissal of the political and economic editor, Bruno Jeudy, after having, according to the editorial staff, “critical” Many times “interference” management in editorial choices, including the front page of July 7, 2022 devoted to Cardinal Robert Sarah, figurehead of Catholic conservatives, author of remarks comparing homosexuality and abortion to Islamic fanaticism.
A motion of censure was then voted against the management and 25 journalists left the editorial office. Emilie Blachère, great reporter who worked for nearly 16 years at Paris Match, exercised his conscience clause to leave the weekly. The journalist believes that the management of Match To “significantly changed direction” and that creates “a situation likely to damage his honor and reputation”. For example, she underlines the absence of articles on the proteges of Vincent Bolloré, like Cyril Hanouna, star of the C8 channel, yet at the heart of the news.
At the “JDD”, an arrival that causes an outcry
The arrival of Geoffroy Lejeune at the head of the Sunday newspaper comes after a series of replacements at the head of the newspaper. The former managing editor of Current values is to succeed Jérôme Béglé, appointed Managing Director of the editorial staff of Paris Match. Regular columnist on CNews, Jérôme Béglé arrived at the start of 2022 at the head of the JDDalready causing at the time the “deep concern” of the editorial staff less than 100 days before the presidential election.
But this time, the choice of Geoffroy Lejeune has “ulcer” the editorial staff of the weekly, which went on strike almost unanimously. “Under the direction of Geoffroy Lejeune, Current values spread hateful attacks and false information”warns a statement from the Society of Journalists of the JDD.
“We refuse that the ‘JDD’ takes this path. The ‘JDD’ is not an opinion newspaper.”
The SDJ of the “Sunday newspaper”in a press release
From now on, the drafting of JDD launched a showdown with the management to try to be heard. “It’s not just the editorial staff, but all the departments of the newspaper – production, distribution, advertising… – who are worried about the very sustainability of the title”still warns the SDJ of the newspaper.