June 25 () –
The staff of the prominent French weekly ‘Le Journal du Dimanche’ went on strike this Sunday in protest at the election of Geoffroy Lejeune, linked to publications condemned for racism and a declared sympathizer of the extreme right, as its new director.
Lejeune, a supporter of far-right politician Éric Zemmour, until now served as editorial chief of the controversial magazine ‘Valeurs Actuelles’, a publication whose director, Erik Monjalous, and his editor Laurent Jullien were sentenced last year for “racist offense” after removing a cartoon of the black deputy Danièle Obono, of the La Francia Insumisa party, as if she were a slave. Lejeune was not affected by the proceedings.
“A strike movement within the ‘Journal du Dimanche’ prevents us from publishing its June 25, 2023 edition both in its digital version and in its paper version. We offer our most sincere apologies,” he excuses himself on the weekly’s website. his staff, which approved the decision with 98 percent approval.
The newsroom asked the management of the weekly, controlled by Vincent Bolloré, on Saturday to withdraw its decision to appoint Lejeune as director; a “red line” for the staff, which refuses “to be directed by a man whose ideas are in total contradiction with the values of the publication.”
The staff fears that the same thing will happen with the ‘Journal du Dimanche’ as other media under Bolloré’s control, such as Cnews: the entry of ‘pens’ related to the extreme right and an exodus of editors contrary to the editorial line.
The French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, declared this Sunday that the appointment of Lejeune as director of what is colloquially known as ‘JDD’ is an “alarming” situation as far as his “republican values” are concerned. “Today I woke up without my ritual of reading the ‘JDD’. I understand that, with the law in hand, it can be whatever it wants, but how not to be alarmed”, she has let it be known.
The medium’s strike has received the support of some thirty journalist associations from the country’s main media, including ‘Le Monde’, France Télévisions, ‘Le Figaro’, ‘Le Parisien’, ‘Libération’, Radio France and even Paris Match — the fate of the until now director of the JDD, Jérôme Béglé –, who have also condemned the appointment of Lejeune.
“The appointment of Lejeune, former editorial manager of the far-right weekly ‘Valeurs Actuelles’, whose hateful content has been condemned by the courts, is incompatible with the values that the ‘Journal’ has exhibited for the last 75 years,” they regret.
