July 27, 2020, The duty revealed that comedian Julien Lacroix was targeted by allegations of sexual assault and misconduct. Nine women had spoken to us then. Mr. Lacroix had refused to speak to our journalist Améli Pineda, but then reacted with messages posted on social networks.
A year and a half later, we conduct an interview with him on his rehabilitation process. The 45-minute interview is broadcast in its entirety, at the request of Mr. Lacroix. Why give so much space and time to this interview? This is a rare access to this type of process, and the public interest therefore seemed obvious to us. But it would have been unthinkable to disseminate his point of view without submitting it not only to questions from our reporter, but also to a critical look at the process, in a quest for balance.
To achieve this, we have established some essential conditions, all accepted by Mr. Lacroix: to corroborate his statements and to have access to the interveners who support him in his approach; hand the microphone to all the women who spoke to us to collect their reactions to the comedian’s first public interview; and situate this approach in the broader social context of the #MeToo wave and the public contritions of the men and women targeted by the allegations, by surveying independent experts.