Paris (AFP)

The editorial staff of Liberation does not want Laurent Joffrin, who left management to start a political movement, to sit on the board of directors of the future fund which will oversee the newspaper, told AFP a member of the SJPL (Society of Journalists and Liberation personnel).

"His position on the endowment fund's board of directors has not been recorded at all. Elected officials will also oppose it, given the new circumstances," he said.

"We are currently working on an ethical charter which excludes any membership in a political movement to lead and add to this fund," he said.

The Altice group, owner of the daily, had surprised us in May by announcing its intention to sell the newspaper to a new non-profit structure, an endowment fund supposed to guarantee the independence of the title and which must be set up at the start of the school year.

Altice expects this fund to be governed by a board of directors with three members: Laurent Joffrin, Arthur Dreyfuss, managing director of Altice Media, and Laurent Halimi, director of mergers and acquisitions at Altice Europe.

"The fact that there are two Altice directors on the board of directors does not seem to us to be particularly a guarantee of independence," deplores a journalist, on condition of anonymity.

"We have always argued for the SJPL to be integrated," said the SJPL.

This request was sent to the new boss of Libé Denis Olivennes, who expressed his desire to strengthen the independence of the editorial staff, in particular through employee participation in future governance, according to an employee statement.

"I do not see why I could not be a member of the endowment fund. It was Patrick Drahi (Altice boss, editor's note) and Arthur Dreyfuss who asked me to," said Thursday evening at l 'AFP Laurent Joffrin.

The latter, also co-manager of Liberation, had announced his intention to leave office at the end of this year. But he precipitated things by announcing Thursday his wish to launch from Monday a new political movement, and to resign from his leadership functions at Liberation.

However, he plans to remain a columnist for the newspaper: "I will continue to write for the newspaper my daily + political letter," he said.

An advertisement very badly received internally, which even made the journalists furious: "Laurent Joffrin wants to make politics, we make journalism", they write in a text published Thursday evening.

"Faced with a fait accompli, the editorial staff notes that this new personal commitment is incompatible with the pursuit of any editorial activity within Liberation," they say.

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