Is Guillaume Meurice the tree that hides the forest? While the comedian revealed, Thursday May 2 on X, to be summoned to “a prior interview with a view to possible disciplinary sanction” − which will take place Thursday May 16 − which could lead to dismissal, several voices from France Inter have been summoned in recent days to learn that their broadcasts or columns were deleted.
The concern and anger are such that the Society of “producers” of France Inter (SDPI), officially recreated a little over a month ago, and the station’s Society of Journalists (SDJ) met urgently, Friday May 3, late in the morning. Between writing and programs, “it’s an unprecedented union”underlines a participant, who does not exclude a “huge mobilization”.
“We refuse what appears to us to be a serious attack on the pluralism of the France Inter branch”, claims in particular their very long joint press release, sent internally on Friday afternoon. The list of grievances begins with “a very worrying sign for freedom of expression” sent by management with the summons of Guillaume Meurice.
It follows the show “Le Grand Dimanche Soir” on Sunday April 28, in which the comedian repeated his controversial quip about the Israeli Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu (qualified as “kind of a Nazi, but without a foreskin”) ; he then joked about what he called “the first joke authorized by French law”.
“The effect of a sledgehammer”
Her colleague, Charline Vanhoenacker, president of the SDPI, “does not understand how such a decision could be taken”, while the complaints which had been filed against Mr. Meurice have just been dismissed by the courts, indicates a relative. According to him, she would be “very uplifted”but also “worried about the profession of journalism and political humor”and even “for the future of the media in France”.
“The summons of Guillaume had the effect of a hammer blow on us all the more as the modifications to the grid for [2025]which had been coming to us over the past few days, were already worrying us a lot”, says the producer of a recurring show. At the start of the school year, in fact, listeners will no longer hear the portraits that Charlotte Perry painted every Saturday (at 11:50 p.m.) in “Des Vies françaises”, any more than the reports on the news of struggles and social mobilizations “C ‘is almost tomorrow”, by Antoine Chao (broadcast on Sundays at 2:40 p.m.), the chronicles “Le Jour où”, which Anaëlle Verzaux delivered every Friday in the program “La Terre au Carré” (she maintains her collaboration of “We don’t stop the eco”, Saturday morning show), or even the large monthly formats of Giv Anquetil for Mathieu Vidard’s show.
You have 62.92% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.