“We have misled our readers, and Provence offers them its deepest apologies. » The message published on the front page of the Marseille daily, Friday March 22, under the signature of the publication’s director, Gabriel d’Harcourt, opened a major crisis in this press group, owned by Rodolphe Saadé’s CMA CGM group, via its specialized branch Whynot Médias.
The day before, the newspaper crossed out its front page with a shocking quote from a resident of La Castellane, the city where Emmanuel Macron spent more than three hours on Monday March 20 to present his national operation to fight drug trafficking. XXL net space.” “He left, and we are still here”, regrets one of the people interviewed on site by the Marseille daily, summarizing the feeling of disappointment of the inhabitants which many reporters and television teams were also able to relay during the day. But some elected members of the presidential camp did not digest this sentence, interpreting it as an open forum for traffickers.
“It’s an arm of honor to the Republic and to the work of all those who work in these neighborhoods, law enforcement, social workers, teachers…”assures regional advisor Christophe Madrolle, who was moved by this on , reported the publication to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and said he communicated by text message with Emmanuel Macron during the day.
According to our information, the excitement in the presidential camp had rapid consequences, and the general director of the La Provence group and director of publication, Gabriel d’Harcourt, was summoned, Thursday March 21, to the headquarters of the CMA CGM, owner of the newspaper, by the teams of Rodolphe Saadé, affirmed support of President Macron. Questioned by AFP, Mr. d’Harcourt – who had been the recipient of the famous “headline” before publication without finding any grounds for modification – refuted any pressure.
Echo on BFM-TV and RMC
In agreement with the director of Whynot Medias, the media subsidiary of the CMA CGM group, Jean-Christophe Tortora, and its deputy general manager for information Laurent Guimier, present in the premises of “La Provence” on Friday March 22, Gabriel d’ Harcourt, however, decided to lay off and summon for an interview prior to dismissal the editorial director, Aurélien Viers, whom he himself had appointed in January 2023. On the move, Wednesday March 20, the day of production of the controversial “front page”, Mr. Viers allegedly tried the next day to modify the message of apology imposed by his publishing director.
You have 57.37% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.