Paris (AFP)
An investigation for "harassment" has been carried out for several months by the Paris prosecutor's office in the case of the "LOL League" which concerns facts and behavior on the internet from journalists and communicators in particular, learned on Friday AFP from judicial sources.
This source did not specify on what date the investigation was opened, entrusted to the Brigade for the Suppression of Crime against the Person (BRDP).
When the case was launched in February 2019, SOS Racisme had taken legal action, imitated a few weeks later by the association Prenons la une, which campaigns for equality between women and men in newsrooms.
Many internet users had accused several members of the group, mainly journalists and communicators, and other outsiders, of having harassed them on the internet at the turn of the 2010s, or of having by their public critics launched digital "packs" against them. These charges resulted in the dismissal of some of the alleged troublemakers.
Among them are a former head of Liberation's web service, Alexandre Hervaud, and a freelance writer.
After an initial apology when a Liberation article was published on the subject, several of them subsequently disputed the charges against them.
At least three industrial tribunal proceedings are underway against Liberation and the Inrocks.
"This information is only made public on the occasion of the first anniversary of the media fiasco which has ruined dozens of lives, on the basis of unfounded accusations," Alexandre Hervaud told AFP. "I would point out, however, that I was not aware of it, and have never been contacted by anyone about it for a year."
A dozen other alleged victims, but also members of the controversial Facebook group also told AFP not to have been contacted by investigators in the past year.
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