Europe 1 with AFP 09:25, June 18, 2022

The management of Altice Media (BFMTV, RMC) announced on Friday that it would cease all collaboration with its star journalist Jean-Jacques Bourdin, 73.

The iconic host has been off the air since January after the opening of an investigation for sexual assault, which has since been closed for prescription.

Abandoned from the air since the end of January, Jean-Jacques Bourdin will remain on the sidelines: Altice, the parent company of BFMTV and RMC, decided on Friday to separate from its 73-year-old star journalist, targeted by accusations of sexual assault which he "firmly" contests.

The management of Altice Media "has decided to put an end to the employment contract of Mr. Jean-Jacques Bourdin and thus cease all collaboration", she indicated in a press release, invoking the "events which have occurred and been brought" to her attention. knowledge "in the year 2022".

"I'm leaving for new adventures"

"We are separating, I am so happy to be released, I am leaving for new adventures (...) long live free and independent journalism!!", reacted on Twitter the PAF sniper, known for his offensive interviews during 21 years on the air at RMC, RMC Découverte and BFMTV.

Altice had launched an internal investigation in mid-January, after learning "through the press" that its star journalist was the subject of a complaint for "sexual assault".

A judicial inquiry had been opened in the process, making it difficult to maintain, in the midst of the presidential campaign, the maintenance of the political interviewer on the air.

21 years of success on #RMC#BFMTV#RMCD.

We part, I'm so happy to be released, I'm leaving for new adventures and I'll never forget those who accompanied me.. long live free and independent journalism!!

— Jean-Jacques Bourdin (@JJBourdin_RMC) June 17, 2022

For the launch on January 18 of "France in the eyes", a political program, the first guest, the candidate LR Valérie Pécresse, had crushed Jean-Jacques Bourdin live, denouncing "the law of silence" around violence against women .

About a month later, the journalist Fanny Agostini, former weather presenter of BFMTV-RMC, then passed by "Thalassa", had revealed to Mediapart to be at the origin of the complaint filed for attempted sexual assault.

Bourdin would have sent insistent emails and SMS

In her complaint, she said that Jean-Jacques Bourdin had "grabbed her neck", and had "tried to kiss her several times", without "succeeding", in the swimming pool of a hotel in Calvi ( Haute-Corse) in October 2013. She would have "struggled" and managed to get out of the pool.

Jean-Jacques Bourdin would then have said: "I always get what I want".

Then he sent her "for several months" insistent emails and text messages, according to the journalist, now 33, who says she "was constantly in fear" until her departure from the group in 2017. Mi -February, a second woman had filed a complaint for sexual assault, harassment and sexual exhibition, for facts dating back to the end of the 1980s.

An investigation closed without follow-up

The investigation was dismissed in April for prescription, the time limit in this area being six years.

The journalist had denounced "the public instrumentalization of this procedure" and deplored the "serious attacks" on his personal and professional life.

Contacted by AFP, the management of Altice did not wish to comment on its decision on Friday, but internally, its departure is not "necessarily a surprise".

"We felt that overall it was a bit, anyway, the end between BFM and Jean-Jacques Bourdin", who had lost the presentation of the BFMTV-RMC morning show in 2020 in favor of Apolline de Malherbe, reminded AFP a journalist from BFMTV, on condition of anonymity.

"He had said clearly that he would stop the political interview after the presidential election", added a colleague from RMC, specifying that he had had no echo, "official or unofficial", of the internal investigation and saying he was "surprised at the tone of the statement" from management.

Launched in 2001 on RMC, the 8:30 morning face-to-face of "Bourdin", mainly with political figures, had relaunched the career of the journalist at the dawn of his fifties.

Betting on an offensive and anti-Parisian tone, the native of Bois-Colombes had managed to raise the audiences of the station.

Previously, he had been one of the emblematic voices of RTL for 25 years with his rocky southern accent.