“We spoke with Jean-Jacques Bourdin who vigorously disputed the facts denounced,” said the group in a statement sent to AFP. “For the sake of transparency, Altice Media is conducting an internal investigation”.
The Altice Media group, owner of RMC and BFMTV, announced on Sunday that it was launching an internal investigation after learning that its star journalist Jean-Jacques Bourdin was the subject of a complaint for “sexual assault”, AFP learned. “We learned through the press of the existence of this complaint. We spoke with Jean-Jacques Bourdin who vigorously disputed the facts denounced,” said the group in a statement sent to AFP. “For the sake of transparency, Altice Media is having an internal investigation conducted to ensure that no facts of this type have been brought to the attention of the managers or colleagues of the interested parties (complainant and defendants)”, announces the group.
The complainant, a former journalist for BFMTV and RMC, now 33 years old and whose identity has not been disclosed, worked “for several years” with the interviewer on the morning show of BFMTV-RMC. She claims he “grabbed her by the neck and tried to kiss her several times” in a hotel swimming pool during a business trip to Corsica in 2013, according to the account made by Le Parisien and confirmed by his lawyer, Me Laure Heinich. Jean-Jacques Bourdin would then have sent him “for several months insistent emails and SMS”, always according to this story.
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We are not minimizing this accusation or giving it a disproportionate dimension.
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“The group’s position is very clear. There is nothing preventing Jean-Jacques Bourdin from doing his job. A simple complaint does not justify disqualifying someone”, for his part declared to the Parisian Marc- Olivier Fogiel, general manager of BFMTV, whose device for the presidential election gives a central place to Jean-Jacques Bourdin. The latter is preparing to launch his new political program “La France dans les yeux”, an interview conducted in the region and live with the main candidates for the Elysée, inaugurated Tuesday evening by Valérie Pécresse in Corrèze.
“We are not minimizing this accusation or giving it a disproportionate dimension,” Mr. Fogiel continued. “At this stage, nothing leads us to change things on the air. We must not give in to any pressure. We are not paralegals. It is up to the prosecution to analyze the complaint,” he added. , specifying that to initiate an internal investigation seemed to him “the most responsible position”. However, Altice Media specifies that it is following “with the greatest attention any developments in this case” and will take “all the measures that may be necessary depending on its evolution”.
Dismissed from the RMC morning show in the summer of 2020 after 19 years of service, Jean-Jacques Bourdin leads his last season at the head of the 8:30 am political interview on radio and BFMTV, the group’s continuous news channel. AlticeMedia. “His contract ends in June, regardless of this story,” said Mr. Fogiel.
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