A new chapter opens in the case of the dismissal of journalist Rachid M’Barki from BFMTV in March 2022 for “serious misconduct”. According to information revealed by our colleagues at Release and confirmed by a judicial source, Rachid M’Barki was indicted on December 8 for breach of trust and passive private corruption. This former figure of the channel is at the heart of an investigation linked to suspicions of foreign interference in French politics and current affairs.
The case in question concerns suspicions of broadcasting of propaganda sequences, organized in collaboration with an intermediary, on behalf of several foreign states, notably Morocco and Bahrain. In question, a dozen briefs broadcast in 2021 and 2022 during Rachid M’Barki’s nightly television news. These briefs would have been “provided turnkey on behalf of foreign customers”according to the investigation consortium, and are therefore considered contentious in the eyes of the courts.
⋙ PHOTOS – Léa Salamé, Pascal Praud, Anne-Sophie Lapix…. discover the journalists when they were younger
Rachid M’Barki did not think he was “working for someone who was trying to manipulate information”
Following his dismissal, many media outlets took up the matter. Rachid M’Barki then reacted strongly, denouncing a “media lynching”. Admitting to having broadcast images provided by an intermediary named Jean-Pierre Duthion, he added that he had not “at no time did the impression (…) that he could work for someone who was trying to manipulate information.”
The affair took a major turning point in October 2023, with the opening of a judicial investigation for breach of trust, corruption, influence peddling by a public official, and laundering of aggravated tax fraud, in the context of these probable foreign interferences. Two other people are also involved in this affair: Rachid M’Barki’s informant, Jean-Pierre Duthion, as well as the political scientist Nabil Ennasri.
Photo credits: JACOVIDES-MOREAU / BESTIMAGE