Fort-de-France (AFP)

There will no longer be a paper daily in Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guyana: the judicial liquidation on Thursday of France-Antilles leads to the disappearance of the three editions of the newspaper, and unemployment for the 235 employees.

Following the decision of the Fort-de-France mixed commercial court, there will no longer be any edition of the newspaper from this day, with the exception of a final special edition, Saturday, February 6, which will be used to finance the social plan. Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana become the only regions to be deprived of a daily newspaper in France.

After several months of uncertainty, the France-Antilles group, a former subsidiary of the Hersant group, was in receivership since June 25, 2019. And the group, created in March 1964 on the occasion of the official visit of President Charles de Gaulle in Martinique, has since failed to find a reliable buyer.

For Me Christophe-Arnaud Célenice, employee lawyer for France-Antilles Martinique, this is "the worst decision". "This means that there are, it will be to refine, 235 employees who find themselves unemployed" and "are unemployed today".

In their Thursday morning cover, the employees expressed their pessimism: "Dear readers, you may have in your hands the latest edition of your France-Antilles newspaper".

"The West Indies and Guyana will be the first and therefore the only regions of France to be deprived of a daily newspaper", continues the daily in one, also emphasizing "the social cataclysm" which "throws 235 employees and their families into the street ".

In a joint statement, the Minister of Culture Franck Riester, and the Minister of Overseas Annick Girardin "regret that the mobilization of private investors, alongside exceptional support from the State, was not enough to allow a recovery project. "

The two ministers "will follow with the greatest attention the social consequences of this judicial liquidation and the support provided to employees".

- "Horrible news" -

France-Antilles faced losses of 500,000 euros per month, for an annual turnover of 28 million euros. Its director general, Frédéric Verbrugghe, had pointed out in the fall that "the publication of a daily newspaper in each of the three departments will remain structurally in deficit", because of "a readership limited by its geography and demography" and "a constrained advertising market".

The group's main shareholder, AJR Participations, the company of Aude Jacques-Ruettard, granddaughter of press boss Robert Hersant, failed to complete its financing plan for its takeover offer, presented on January 14 last. It planned to keep 125 jobs out of the 235 in the group, with the publication of a weekly sorting in Guadeloupe and Martinique and a digital version in Guyana.

It had to find an additional 1.3 million euros, the State having granted aid of three million to add to the other three million euros from investors.

Ultimately, only the radio subsidiaries of the three editions are sold to a buyer.

"France Antilles disappears ... horrible news for the press and democracy, like what is happening in the USA where 1,800 regional titles have already disappeared," said Jean-Michel Baylet, president of the Alliance de the general press, in a statement to AFP. "We see there, among other reasons, the harmful consequence of the action of GAFA and their refusal to apply the texts adopted by the European Union and the French Parliament," added Mr. Baylet, calling on the president of the Republic to "act".

During his greetings to the press in mid-January, Emmanuel Macron had assured that "specific measures" would be taken to help the press in Overseas, "particularly weakened".

"Information is an essential link in democracy, so we can only deplore this great loss", reacted the senator from Martinique Catherine Conconne, while the president of the Departmental Council of Guadeloupe, Josette Borel-Lincertin, sees in this liquidation "a disaster for employees, a disaster for readers, a disaster for pluralism in our territories", and "a new sign of abandonment of our territories".

Caz-jmp-fam-fpo / jk

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