Journalist Inès Léraud was the subject of a complaint for defamation by the Breton company Cheritel.

The complaint was withdrawn a week before the hearing.

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Emmanuel Pain

  • A Guingamp-based wholesaler had filed a defamation complaint against a journalist and the online media Basta.

    The complaint was withdrawn one week from the hearing.

  • The support committee for journalist Inès Léraud warns about the difficulties for the press to provide information on agrifood in Brittany.

  • The sector is one of the heavyweights of the economy and would benefit from a significant lobby among decision-makers and elected officials, according to its detractors.

It is their victory but also that of freedom of the press.

Thursday, the lawyer for the Cheritel group apologized to the Paris Criminal Court for having encumbered it for nothing.

A year and a half ago, his client lodged a defamation complaint against journalist Inès Léraud and online media Basta after the publication of an investigation into suspicions of covert work and label fraud.

A complaint dating from 2019 which was finally withdrawn last week, a week before the hearing.

“The lawsuits are dropped.

Not because we think that what was said by Ms. Léraud is true, there are a lot of things wrong, but we give in to the pressure, ”explained a manager of the Breton fruit and vegetable company.

In 2015, the Guingamp-based group had already attacked the newspaper

Le Télégramme 

for defamation.

He has since been condemned by the courts for having sold foreign tomatoes under the label “origin France”.

He appealed against this conviction.

This method, which some qualify as "intimidation", is rare in Brittany.

But it would actually hide a very dark side of the agri-food sector.

Regularly attacked on its environmental and social practices, the heavyweight of Breton industry has gradually walled off in silence.

“A lot of people are afraid to speak”, summarizes Inès Léraud, also author of a comic strip on green algae.

"This complaint was a gag order to hinder the work of journalists," said Yvan du Roy, the founder of Basta.

In this case, the press was not the only target.

Three members of the CFDT union are still the subject of a complaint from the Cheritel group after the distribution of a leaflet.

“It is not our union that is being sued.

It is us, on our behalf ”.

In twenty-five years of unionism, Jean-Luc Feillant had never seen that.

His union, however, has mobilized to denounce the use of seconded foreign workers that cooperatives employ with great reinforcements for crops such as shallots.

"It's very difficult to have a dissenting word"

Beyond this company, the entire Breton economy would be bypassed by the powerful agrifood lobby, according to Inès Léraud and her supporters.

"It is very difficult to have a dissenting voice, to find people who will speak publicly on the subjects that disturb", estimates the journalist of Radio Kreiz Breizh Morgan Large, which tells the threats of complaints emitted by several mastodons economy.

These disturbing witnesses often prefer to be silent rather than to be stigmatized, or put under pressure.

Inès Léraud and her support committee even accuse the agribusiness lobby of having infiltrated all branches of society: local municipal councils, banks, regional media where they buy a lot of advertising.

But also the regional council of Brittany, where sits in particular Olivier Allain, vice-president for agriculture and former executive of the FDSEA of Côtes d'Armor.

Asked about this, its president Loïg Chesnais-Girard especially welcomed the fact that “tensions are easing”, recalling his recent commitment “to guarantee the independence and autonomy of journalists so that they can work freely on agrifood challenges in Brittany ”.

The socialist had even mentioned the creation of an independent regional observatory of press freedoms, without knowing where this will lead.

“Some companies feel attacked, so they protect themselves, they wallow in.

They are in the secret and the taboo to hide their excesses ”, estimates Geoffrey Le Guilcher.

This journalist had spent forty days infiltrated in a huge Breton slaughterhouse in 2018. His testimony on the condition of the animals and the employees of this meat giant had been widely commented upon when his book Steak Machine was released.

“Slaughterhouses erect walls around their killing rooms to hide them from their own employees.

We have to show what is happening there, it is common knowledge ”.

The journalist assures that he has not been subjected to any pressure since the publication.

Planet

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Society

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  • Lobby

  • Lobbying

  • Defamation

  • Green algae

  • Complaint

  • Agriculture

  • Freedom of press

  • Food industry

  • Hurry

  • Reindeer

  • Media