Suspicions of interference: the French channel BFMTV fires one of its journalists
The logo of the continuous news television channel BFMTV (illustration image).
AFP/Archives
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The French news channel BFMTV fired a journalist after an audit into suspicions of outside interference in his work, and filed a complaint against X, according to an internal email sent on Thursday February 23.
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The channel had opened an internal investigation in January and dismissed the journalist concerned, Rachid M'Barki, from the air.
The suspicions concerned briefs relating in particular to the Russian oligarchs, Qatar or Western Sahara, broadcast on the antenna during the night editions that it presented.
According to an investigation by the collective of journalists Forbidden Stories, to which the investigation unit of Radio France and the daily Le Monde contributed for France, this affair is a small part of a vast disinformation enterprise piloted by an Israeli pharmacy, which would sell its services worldwide.
This company is made up of former members of the Israeli security services, according to the revelations of the collective, broadcast by thirty international media.
Questioned at the beginning of February by the Politico site, which had revealed its implicated, Rachid M'Barki, suspended since January 11, had admitted to having "
used information which
(him)
came from informants
" and which had "
not necessarily followed the usual course of writing
”.
“
They were all real and verified.
(...)
I'm not ruling anything out, maybe I got tricked, I didn't feel that was the case or that I was taking part in an operation of I don't know what, otherwise I don't wouldn't have done it
," he continued.
The internal audit "
made it possible to identify several sequences, between 2021 and 2022, which were broadcast without respecting the
validation "processes"
and the editorial line
", wrote in an internal email the director general of BFMTV, Marc -Olivier Fogiel.
“
These failures are the sole responsibility of a journalist who did not respect the rules in force within the editorial staff.
Management has decided to terminate his employment contract on February 21, 2023
,” he said.
“
A complaint against X relating to the facts of which BFMTV was the victim was filed on February 22, 2023
”, added Marc-Olivier Fogiel.
It concerns acts of passive corruption and breach of trust.
►Also read: A ghost Israeli company would have influenced dozens of elections around the world
In response to this case, the channel decided to "
further strengthen
" its editorial validation systems, said the general manager of BFMTV.
He underlines in his message that "
this isolated case in no way reflects the exceptional and rigorous work carried out with professionalism and ethics by the 250 journalists of BFMTV
".
(
With
AFP)
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