WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, UCL AL #341 - Politics, Media independence: Strikes and mass departures at JDD (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Following the arrival of Geoffroy Lejeune at the head of the editorial

staff of the Journal Du Dimanche, the company's employees went on strike
for 40 days to fight against the extreme right-wing of the media, but
despite the strike Bolloré's media empire continues to expand. ---- The
appointment of Geoffroy Lejeune (former editor-in-chief of Valeurs
Acteurs) to the post of editor-in-chief of the Journal du Dimanche (JDD)
following the acquisition of the JDD by Vivendi, a group belonging to
Vincent Bolloré (French billionaire extreme right, fundamentalist
Catholic very close to Zemmour), triggered a major strike at the
newspaper's editorial office. Indeed Geoffroy Lejeune had just been
fired by Valeurs Acteurs (in June 2023) for his line which was too far
right, a shame for one of the most reactionary newspapers in France!

Bolloré's control over the French press was also at the origin of the
strike, in fact since 2014 he has been deploying a veritable far-right
media offensive using his fortune to buy numerous media outlets: C8,
CNews, Europe1 , Paris Match. This historic strike for anti-fascist
reasons lasted 40 days, the longest social movement in the history of
French media since 1975. The weekly, whose paid circulation fell by 8%
in 2022, to 131,770 copies, n was not published for five weekends. The
shortfall for Lagardère News would be around 1.5 million euros.

Even if the employees did not succeed in preventing the appointment of
the far-right editor-in-chief, they managed to obtain advantageous
departure conditions. So by October 90% of the JDD editorial staff
should leave, Geoffroy Lejeune is therefore taking over a newspaper with
a completely empty editorial staff.

A far-right media offensive
The struggle within the editorial team visibly disrupted the release of
the first issues under the aegis of Lejeune, which included multiple
errors that were strongly denounced. The front page of the first issue
in particular, which took up the rhetoric of "Francocide" dear to Eric
Zemmour, was illustrated by the photo of a victim who had nothing to do
with the cases cited apart from his first name "Enzo". The seriousness
of the "new JDD" was therefore directly called into question from the
release of the first issue of the Lejeune era.

Despite the ridicule of the first issues, the "bollorization" of the
media does not seem to have stopped since it did not turn back and
succeeded, despite massive opposition, in imposing an editor-in-chief
who had just been fired by a far-right newspaper for its extremism. This
media offensive which has accompanied the rise of far-right ideas for
years must be countered, but how can we compete with Bolloré's media empire?

Newspapers and the media in general play a major political role since
they allow us to control the stories and choose the facts that we put
forward and can also serve as a springboard for a candidate for
elections as CNews did with Zemmour. The work of more independent
editorial offices such as Mediapart, Streetpress or Rapports de force
must be supported because billionaires will always oppose the interests
of our class or even support the rise of fascism as Bolloré does.

Benjamin (UCL Orléans)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Independances-des-medias-Greves-et-departs-en-masse-au-JDD
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