The journalists’ societies (SDJ) of the M6 television news, RTL radio and the BFMTV channel have expressed their support for the host of the program “Zone Interdite” Ophélie Meunier, placed under police protection after receiving threats following a report on Islamism. “We, SDJ from the M6 newscast and SDJ from RTL, give our full support to the entire ‘Zone Interdite’ team and in particular to Ophélie Meunier, as well as to all the speakers who have agreed to testify”wrote the SDJ of M6 on its Twitter account, Monday, January 21.
@sdj_m6 @SDJRTL @m6info @RTLFrance #Restricted zone pic.twitter.com/sZg2aHQNKM
— SDJ_M6 (@sdj_m6) January 31, 2022
“It is unacceptable to attack anyone like this. Nothing justifies threats or violence, and information and freedom of the press must remain a priority if we want to preserve our democracy”, she added. A young man from Roubaix and witness in the report, Amine Elbahi, was also placed under police protection after receiving threats. Asked by AFP, the M6 channel indicated that it preferred “do not comment”.
>> Threatened with death, an associative activist denounces the rise of Islamist fundamentalism in the city
The broadcast on January 23 of the report, partly devoted to Islamism in the city of Roubaix, had provoked a lively controversy, causing even the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to react in the National Assembly. “The journalists and the people who testified in this report have been supported, their complaints have been investigated. I have given extremely important means so that the authors of these threats are found”he also declared during a trip to Marseille, recalling that police protection had been “decided”.
“We must be unanimously united because a death threat against journalists is unbearable, it is unacceptable”hammered Monday the lawyer of Charlie Hebdo and the young Mila, Richard Malka, at the microphone of RTL. “As for Mila, as for charlie, you don’t have to get used to it. Fear must change sides, there must be unanimity of the entire profession. If you don’t stand up for yourself, who will?