"There is no doubt that BFM is a victim in this story, when one of ours bypasses the hierarchical chain, that poses a problem", reacted Wednesday the general manager of the info channel, Marc-Olivier Fogiel , on France Inter, after having launched an internal investigation and suspended the 54-year-old journalist.
According to this investigation by the collective of journalists Forbidden Stories, to which the investigation unit of Radio France and Le Monde contributed for France, this affair is linked to a vast disinformation enterprise led by an Israeli pharmacy, which would sell its services worldwide. .
The investigative journalists were able to meet a manager of this pharmacy in Israel, referred to as "Team Jorge".
He told them, demonstrating in support, to be able to automatically create fake online accounts, automatically generate content on social networks or hack emails or Telegram accounts, in order to influence electoral campaigns in particular.
In the case of Mr. M'Barki on BFMTV, the briefs broadcast related to the Russian oligarchs, in Qatar, in Sudan, in Cameroon, or even in Western Sahara and would have been "provided turnkey on behalf of foreign clients" , according to the investigative consortium.
The first news channel in France had opened an internal investigation in January due to suspicions against Rachid M'Barki.
According to Mr. Fogiel, the presenter "managed to ask for (some) images at the last minute" to illustrate briefs, "once the editor-in-chief was taken on another installment and had validated all of his newspaper" .
Questioned in January by the Politico site, Mr. M'Barki had admitted to having "used information which (him) came from informants" and which "did not necessarily follow the usual course of writing".
"They were all real and verified (...) I'm not ruling anything out, maybe I was tricked, I didn't feel like it was or that I was part of a fraud operation. I don't know what else I wouldn't have done it," he continued.
© 2023 AFP