However, everything had started again. By starting a second term at the head of Radio France, on April 16, Sibyle Veil, reappointed by the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority, had some reason to be confident.
The investigation into brutal management at France Culture, which has been in the news since the start of the school year in September 2022, was already a thing of the past. The CEO had just taken Emelie de Jong’s name out of the relative discretion enjoyed by the program director of Arte on the Franco-German channel, to place the latter in charge of cultural radio and thus make her the successor to Sandrine Treiner, who resigned.
On the side of France Bleu, the former editorial director of BFM-TV, Céline Pigalle, was just taking up her management duties, promising a new era for the antenna at the forty-four local stations, plagued by management and audience difficulties for years. And France Inter was in the process of crossing the milestone of seven million daily listeners, according to figures from Médiamétrie, an absolute record.
Internal investigation
All that remained was to concentrate on the renewal of the programs. Like every year at this time, some were going to make noise about their disappointment at having to get off the merry-go-round, but not to the point of spoiling the party.
While the future method of financing public broadcasting is still waiting to be set in stone, and while the development of Radio France’s contract of objectives and resources (its roadmap) for the next five years is still being developed, we hoped, at Radio France, to get through the period without being noticed too much. But, between the controversial decisions and the beginnings of rebellion, nothing happened as hoped.
The first gale rises from March 21. That day, the editorial director of France Inter, Catherine Nayl, who had arrived five years earlier from TF1, announced that she would retire in the summer. Very quickly, rumors about the identity of the one who could succeed him begin to circulate: the morning worker of Franceinfo, Marc Fauvelle, is in the ranks. His qualities as a demanding journalist are unanimously acclaimed, he knows Inter for having directed its political department and presented the 8 o’clock news: recruitment is under the best auspices.
However, on April 13, the Society of Journalists (SDJ) of Radio France asked to meet Adèle Van Reeth, the director of France Inter for a year. She sends him testimonies about the star of Franceinfo reporting aggressive, even denigrating remarks towards some of his colleagues.
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