Paris (AFP)
Spared for a long time, the sports department of Canal + has been living under the "reign of terror" since the dismissal of five people and fears a "bringing into line" under the influence of Vincent Bolloré, at the helm of the parent company Vivendi.
"The climate is humanly complicated," says a sports journalist, split between Canal + and Infosport +.
However, the group has just recovered the broadcasting rights for Ligue 1 after the failure of Téléfoot, the Mediapro channel.
This "should make us all happy, in a united editorial", adds the reporter who, like all those contacted by AFP, wished to remain anonymous.
But "we have a sword of Damocles over our head where every day we can learn in the newspaper that so and so was fired because he did not say sorry to Bolloré", he summarizes. .
Censures, "attacks on freedom of expression" ... Criticized for the "brutality" of his methods, the billionaire is regularly accused of having torpedoed "the Canal spirit" since he took over in 2015 the presidency of the Group supervisory board, entrusted in 2018 to a relative, Jean-Christophe Thiery.
- Masked -
"He cleared the Guignols, the investigation," brought the drafting of iTELE, now CNews, to a halt, underlines a union source.
"It is catching up with sports, a Gallic village a little detached from the problems of the rest of the company," she said.
"It's the reign of terror," confirms another sports journalist.
At the origin of this "deleterious atmosphere", a petition made public in December and signed by some 150 employees, including 48 anonymously, in support of the comedian Sébastien Thoen, fired at the end of November after a sketch parodying "The hour of the pros ", Pascal Praud's show on CNews.
In the wake of the comedian, columnist for the "Canal Sports Club", the commentator Stéphane Guy was fired on December 24, after 23 years at home for having paid tribute to him on the air.
Sign of unease: several dozen employees, their faces covered with a mask bearing his effigy, then gathered in silence in front of the headquarters of the chain to denounce this sanction.
And in mid-February, three long-time freelancers were also dismissed for signing the petition.
Since then, the press has reported "pressure" exerted on other signatories to withdraw by email or verbally, on pain of losing their jobs.
Pressures confirmed to AFP by an elected union official but which remain "unclear", according to the journalists interviewed.
There may have been an "excess of zeal" from a hierarchy having "taken the fold" of "a little tyrannical ways" of Bolloré, said another elected.
- "On the floor" -
Pleading a "total incomprehension", the channel, contacted by AFP, refutes any pressure to obtain an apology.
"It was reported by the sports editorial management that some employees regretted their signing" because "of their poor understanding of the situation when they were asked," she told Le Monde.
Asked by AFP during the presentation of the annual financial results, the chairman of the management board of Vivendi, Arnaud de Puyfontaine, said he was "completely calm for journalists (...) who place their trust in the group" .
Staff representatives have called for an extraordinary CSE to be held on Wednesday.
But an elected union official does not have "many illusions": "the CDD and freelancers" having initialed the offending text will no longer be recalled at the end of the season, he predicts.
Signatory, the presenter of the "Canal Sports Club", Marie Portolano, who will join M6, "managed to escape", but all the others "will release", adds another union source, stressing that the "group has the means to line up the checks for people to leave. "
Especially since "with the end of Téléfoot, there are a lot of journalists on the floor," insists one of the two reporters interviewed.
How to fight?
The inter-union + Libres, CFE-CGC, CGT denounced "authoritarian abuses" and called politicians, artists or subscribers for help, in vain.
To strike ?
"We have more to lose than to gain," said an elected official, citing the 31-day strike at iTELE at the end of 2016, which resulted in the departure of around 100 journalists out of 120.
© 2021 AFP