Media: Splann, journalists and citizens, from Brittany and around the world

January 2022, during the Longue d'Ondes festival in Brest, part of the Editorial Committee team and also founding members of Splann: from left to right, Faustine Sternberg, Gwenvaël Delanoë, Sylvain Ernault, Caroline Trouillet and Juliette Cabaço Roger.

© Celia Caradec for Splann

Text by: Isabelle Le Gonidec

11 mins

Producing reliable information, as close as possible to the populations concerned, and independent of any pressure group, was the objective of the collective of journalists Splann when it was created a year ago, in Brittany.

Since then, the young team has produced a survey on ammonia pollution, is working on other projects and is weaving its network beyond regional and national limits.

Because information is a public good and access to information is a democratic issue that goes beyond borders.

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Against the tide of clichés about Brittany, "land of moorland and legends", and " 

 ", according to the expression of Morgan Large, one of the figures of the collective.

The files on which Splann wants to investigate are those that scratch: to begin with, the pollution of intensive agriculture and industrial breeding, since Brittany is the second French agricultural region but above all the first region for breeding, in particular aboveground, pigs and poultry.

Field investigations by journalists

in her

sur France culture, and on green algae as a consequence of nitrate pollution - the comic strip investigates

illustrated by Pierre Van Hove (2019) was a great public success - and by

on local radio RKB, have been documenting the negative effects of this agro-industry on people and nature for years.

They are both members and “godmothers” of the association.

Splann: “for investigative journalism in Brittany”

Splann, already the name is a whole program: it means "clear" or "transparent" in Breton, an informational and cultural bias.

Make information accessible, provide tools to understand and fit into a cultural and linguistic pool since all the team's production is bilingual.

The hard core of Splann was the IUT of Lannion, the only school of journalism recognized by the profession in the Great West.

Four of the six members of Splann's editorial board are from it.

The school has served as a breeding ground for a network, between students and teachers, of good connoisseurs of the problems of the territory, which has grown.

But it is of course not necessary to be Breton or Breton to be part of the association, as is the case of Inès Léraud, whose legitimacy to investigate environmental issues is well established.

Splann was formed as an association from the outset, on the model of Disclose, which is its claimed model.

With the exception of professionals called upon for surveys, all of its members, including the editorial committee, are volunteers.

The work is financed by donations from the public which constitute the bulk of the resources.

A new call for funds will also be launched for the 2023 surveys.

But in a region where nearly a third of the active population works in the agri-food sector, it is not always easy to investigate these subjects, say the journalists.

"

", explained Morgan Large, at the end of January at the

.

Farmers who refuse to fit into the mold imposed by the very productivist economic model can also be penalized.

During the round table organized in Brest on the theme “Investigation and risk-taking”, the three invited journalists from Splann explained the difficulties they faced in the field.

Where they live and work.

All the journalists of the collective live in Brittany because being on the ground on which we work makes us all the more invested, according to Sylvain Ernault, journalist and member of the editorial committee of the association.

" 

  ", he tells us. 

But being in the field means taking risks when working on sensitive subjects with a strong social and economic impact.

Journalists also suffer physical threats, as was the case with Morgan Large last year, and legal pressure.

These pressures, increasingly strong, especially on Inès Léraud in 2020, had led to the creation of the collective of journalists 

(which means “to inform” in Breton).

He had been at the origin of an open letter to the Regional Council and a

to denounce the difficulty of informing the powers of the agri-food industry in Brittany.

Cover of the comic strip “Les Algues vertes”, by Ines Leraud and Pierre Van Hove.

© The Comic Review – Delcourt, 2019 – Leraud, Van Hove

“

A journalism of social transformation

”

"

," reads

.

Information is a public good and must therefore be widely disseminated: the first survey on ammonia pollution in Brittany (the region is the leading emitter of this gas in France), published in June 2021, is freely accessible on the association's website and media partners such as Mediapart.

The regional media relayed this work and journalists from Splann, in particular its author

, participate in many debates and meetings, in Brittany and outside the region, to raise awareness of this pollution and its impact on public health and the environment.

Informing is good, but it's even better if this information has a positive impact on the course of things... The team is delighted that its work has an impact on current issues, as was the case during the public debate on the opportunity to create a

, in Morbihan: the investigation was cited in the context of the debates at the administrative court of Rennes which led in 2021 to the cancellation of the authorization which had been given for a breeding of 120,000 chickens in the town.

The association also tries, to the extent of its human resources, to follow up on its investigation work, explains Sylvain Ernault: a free monthly newsletter has been launched and a watch is kept on environmental themes.

A lot of work for volunteer members.

But also a commitment and an original experience that arouse interest in France and beyond our borders, as evidenced by this recent visit by colleagues from the daily newspaper

in Belgium, says Sylvain Ernault again.

Money, the sinews of war

Brittany has good media coverage, both in print - with two major daily newspapers,

and

and a host of more local publications - as well as radio and television, but these media can have difficulty launching investigations.

In addition to possible pressure from advertisers - and the Breton agro-industrial lobby is powerful - the investigation work is necessarily long-term, so it is costly in time and money.

If the editorial staff may hesitate to finance such projects, it is even more risky for a freelance journalist, especially since he risks alienating himself by working on sensitive subjects, contacts, an information network .

" 

”, explained on France 3 Bretagne

, one of the co -founders of Splann.

To finance the investigations, a call for donations was launched and some 90,000 euros were collected last year.

Splann's editorial committee chooses to finance one or more people over a long period of time to clear a field chosen upstream by the collective.

Thus the first major survey on ammonia, which cost around 20,000 euros, was carried out over more than five months and half-time by Caroline Trouillet, who had already surveyed the rural world in France and elsewhere (you can

his report here on RFI on the spoliation of Mapuche lands in Patagonia) and on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The work of the photographers, graphic designers, etc., is also included in the budget, as well as the fees of the lawyer who proofreads all of the work because "

, ”insists Sylvain Ernault.

There remains some 60,000 euros in the cash for the three investigations which are currently in progress, he continues.

The next should come out before the presidential election.

Three pairs of investigators are on the ground.

Defending freedom of expression, a constant commitment

"

insists Sylvain Ernault,

.

In Brest, during the debate on Wavelengths, Morgan Large recounted how one of her interlocutors threatened her with a lawsuit if the name of her company was mentioned on the antenna of

, her RKB magazine.

The famous "gag trials", which some groups have made a specialty of and which tie up freelance investigators and whistleblowers.

Morgan Large, journalist at Radio Kreiz Breizh, lives and works in Central Brittany, in the Rostrenen region.

Threatened (her vehicle in particular was sabotaged), the journalist filed a complaint last year on two aspects: degradation that could lead to injury and infringement of freedom of expression.

AFP - LOIC VENANCE

Field investigators are also often fixers for journalists sent by the national media and whistleblowers on environmental issues, and the association participates in the defense of these essential sentinels.

She is concerned, along with other associations, journalists' unions and citizens, about the future of the bill aimed at improving the

.

Member of the collective "

", of the Council of journalistic ethics and mediation, Splann participates in the meeting of the

which is held in mid-February at the Bourse du Travail in Paris.

Painstaking work for a small but essential team as journalists work in increasingly difficult conditions, including in France.

Splann and others welcomed the partial dismantling, at the beginning of February, of the

, a police and judicial system intended to fight against "attacks on the agricultural world", created at the end of 2019. Such as Christophe Castaner, Minister of the Interior of the time, had presented it - precisely in Brittany - this unit aimed to prevent thefts and intrusions into farms but also to prevent " 

 ", such as the intrusions of animal rights activists into intensive livestock farms.

Several agricultural associations and unions had then

.

An administrative appeal was filed against the cell on the grounds that it infringed freedom of expression. 

Victoire !

✊ The Demeter cell is no longer needed.

The administrative court of Paris judges that "the Minister of the Interior has made an error of law" by including in the perimeter of the Demeter cell the "monitoring of actions of an ideological nature".

Its main objective.

pic.twitter.com/fnZSeZH8Sc

— Kelaouiñ (@Kelaouinbzh) February 1, 2022

Splann is also part of a changing media landscape: on the web or other media, associations, citizens, sites and sources abound with new modes of operation and financing.

Their motto: work together, pool resources, networks and tools (as was the case in the survey on ammonia where American studies were used) for greater efficiency, even if it means " 

”, emphasizes Sylvain Ernault, who has participated in other regions in meetings of collectives close to Splann's objectives.

" 

 »

► To read also: Faced with the immensity of Big Data, the strategies of investigative journalists

From Brittany to the rest of the world or vice versa

The first survey concerned the regional territory, but in a globalized economy, particularly in terms of agriculture and energy, the experiences are transferable.

The ammonia survey " 

", explains Sylvain Ernault.

Similarly, pigs and poultry in Brittany feed on soy which arrives by cargo ship in Saint-Nazaire or Brest.

And how is this soy produced?

This is a legitimate question.

Then, these same poultry are widely exported to the Middle East or

... Another debate.

If you want to understand a sector as a whole, you have to cross borders and Splann does not refrain from doing so, especially since some of its journalists have the opportunity to work on subjects outside France such as this was the case for Caroline Trouillet in Argentina or for Gwenvaël Delanoë, journalist founding member of Splann on the

or the

.

Contacts are made that will enrich future investigations, but we cannot deflower the subject.

In hollow, it is also an economic and political organization that Splann questions, continues Sylvain Ernault: in spite of the posting of the speeches and the money invested, there is no notable improvement of the environment, "

”.

We see it in the level of pollution of green algae which now invites itself

or in the rate of contamination with ammonia which continues to increase, denounces Caroline Trouillet.

An economic and political order to be reinvented, then.

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