France 2 investigation “Additional investigation” reveals the behind the sequence of fake Brav-M police officers invited by Cyril Hanouna in “Touche pas à mon poste”

This time, he speaks to the camera with his face uncovered. Without a black hood, without an orange “police” armband, without a modified voice. Eight months after his appearance on the show “Touche pas à mon poste” on C8, Cédric Vladimir is bitter. “Ona three police officers who risk losing their jobs because they trusted and their trust was betrayed”, tell the former police officer has “Further investigation”, which dedicates an issue to Cyril Hanouna* and returns, Thursday 30 November, on a TV sequence that went viral : that of the fake Brav-M police officers invited on set.

This Friday March 31, Cédric Vladimir settles on the set of “TPMP” with three other people, two men and a woman, all dressed in black. The famous host presents them on the air : all four would be police officers belonging to the Brav-M and special units. At the time, the motorized police brigade is widely criticized for its management of the protest against pension reform. Elected officials demand its dismantling, a petition demanding its dissolution has been launched. “We know the terrain very, very well,” “we are among the old ones, we have practiced it from A to Z”, says one of the speakers.

But the image of these hooded police officers with fake voices immediately angers the police. Two hours after the broadcast, the union of national police commissioners (SCPN) calls out the host on social networks : “Mr. Hanouna, according to our information, they are not/no longer police officers, and you have not carried out the necessary checks to avoid exposing usurping puppets. You deserve prosecution.” The police headquarters, on which Brav-M depends, announces the opening of an administrative investigation and referral to the Paris public prosecutor. “The first elements in our possession suggest that these people do not belong to the Brav-M,” can we read on his X account.

Three days later, Cyril Hanouna persists and claims his scoop. “People are jealous because they didn’t have a Brav-M guy on set. Every time, the guys say to each other : ‘how Hanouna did ?“

The police claim to have been “deceived”

However, Cyril Hanouna’s alleged scoop is not one. The investigation carried out by the IGPN, the police force, is formal : no Brav-M police officer was on set this March evening. Cédric Vladimir, who is the one who speaks the most during the show, is no longer even a police officer since his dismissal three months previously. This ex-police officer, member of a union close to the extreme right, claims to have always been very clear with the host’s teams on the fact that none of them belonged to the Parisian motorized brigade. “Lduring the very last preparations [de l’émission]we are told : ‘Okay, finally, we’re going to introduce you as four Brav-M police officers’. And there I said : ‘Stop, we stop everything, that’s out of the question’, he tells “Further investigation”.

Cédric Vladimir clarifies this in a text message sent to the programmer of “TPMP”, the day before the broadcast : “Diana, we cannot be announced as Brav-M police officers. We can be announced as four field police officers specializing in maintaining order in Paris who all have more than ten years of career, still on the ground in First line”, he writes in this SMS, which the “Additional investigation” team consulted.

The former police officer also warns her about the disastrous consequences of lying. “Criminal proceedings will be initiated for usurpation of title and function. And ‘TPMP’ will also be the target of press releases and attacks for fakery. I have had our jurists and lawyers, they are unanimous, they prohibit me from speaking on set under this presentation”he writes. "I couldn’t be much clearer," he observes today.

Cyril Hanouna disputes the facts

Cyril Hanouna denies having been informed that none of these police officers were members of the Brav-M. Just like the programmer of the show. “In addition to this message, oWe spoke on the phone twenty times, Diana Kerfallah defends herself today. We have audio notes, we have messages, we have lots of things. What we were told was that there was at least one Brav-M police officer and police officers involved in maintaining order. I was lied to, for what purpose ? This is the question we are asking ourselves today. In any case, the lie does not come from us.”

However, the programmer and Cyril Hanouna seem to have been warned very early on that no member of Brav-M would be present on set. In the hearings of the three real police officers, which the “Complément d’investigation” team obtained, Sandra D. talks about the meeting to prepare the show, the day before recording. “Diana told us that we would be introduced as members of the Brav-M. We said that was out of the question since none of us had been assigned to that unit.”

To investigators, his colleague Fabien B. will also confide his surprise when discovering behind the scenes the launch made on the air by Cyril Hanouna. “We then all looked at each other because this was absolutely not what had been agreed with the production.” According to Sandra D., the three police officers then threatened to leave the studio. “Diana was told that we wouldn’t be able to go on set if we were introduced like that. Diana reassured us, and the show started. Everyone knew that no one was from Brav-M, but that didn’t matter. bothered no one. In the evening, when I look at the internet, I understand that I was deceived, it was done to me in reverse.”

The identity of the police officers has not been preserved

Subject to the duty of confidentiality, Cédric Vladimir’s three colleagues could not in fact testify without the approval of their hierarchy. So that they are not recognized, the production had made a commitment : that they are not identifiable. un commitment reaffirmed on the set of “TPMP” three days after the start of the controversy, when Cyril Hanouna receives the Paris police prefect. “We have the identities of these four people,” the host advances in front of Laurent Nunotez, then invited on set. “Can you ask us to give them? ? Because we won’t give them.”

Same promise from Lionel Stan,he general director of H20 Productions, to whom we owe “Touche pas à mon poste”. “I have the professional cards of these four police officers, I will not give their identities,” he assures on CNews, the Canal+ group’s continuous news channel. “Once again, this is not the first time that we have had a masked police officer on one of our sets. If we give out these identities, that’s the end of our job. The idea of ​​’TPMP’ is to have field witnesses. I am not going to reveal the identity of these police officers.”

However, Diana, the programmer, will end up sending the police officers’ personal addresses by SMS, as proven by text messages that the France show 2 viewed. In the IGPN report there is also an email, signed by the same Lionel Stan, and intended for the commissioner in charge of the administrative investigation :

“Bhello, following our conversation today, you will find attached :

– the 4 first names and telephone numbers of the police officers on set.

– the 3 fronts of their police card.”

If he transmitted the professional cards of anonymous witnesses, it is because he had “a judicial requisition”, affirms Cyril Hanouna’s right arm afterwards, while brushing aside the notion of protection of sources. “As you know, we are not a press agency, we are not journalists.”

Eight months after this sequence, Sandra D. received a three-day suspension without pay. Fabian B. received a reprimand. As for the third civil servant, who denied having come on the set of “TPMP”, he will go to the disciplinary council and risks dismissal.

For this sequence, Arcom, the audiovisual regulator, sent a warning to the channel C8 for “lack of honesty in the presentation of information”. “TPMP” is today the most sanctioned program in the French audiovisual landscape. In thirteen years, she received 29 calls to order and sanctions. In total, C8 paid 7.5 million euros for the slip-ups of its flagship show.

* “Additional investigation” offers a long portrait of Cyril Hanouna, Thursday November 30. The investigative magazine met former relatives of the host but also current collaborators, who paint the portrait of a “gang leader” with controversial management methods. He also goes behind the scenes of several notable sequences of “Touche pas à mon poste”, the PAF’s most sanctioned show. And he makes revelations about the host’s personal fortune. To see, from 11 p.m., on France 2, on franceinfo.fr and on france.tv.