The voltage does not drop to the Parisian. Considering that the “explanations and proposals [n’étaient pas] reassuring”, the editorial staff of the daily widely expressed its distrust of the management, Wednesday, April 12, during a vote by secret ballot. At the question, “Do you trust the editorial management to provide sufficient responses to the editorial drift observed by the editorial staff of the Parisian ? », 191 voters – out of a total of 226 – answered “no”, 28 voted “yes”, 5 voted blank or null and 2 voters abstained. This represents less than 50% of the writing, argues, for its part, the direction of the Parisianwhich reports this result to the 410 journalists holding press cards who work for the title.
On April 4, a previous text had been validated almost unanimously during a general assembly to denounce the fact that “red lines” have been crossed by the direction of the drafting of the title concerning “the underexposure of social movement coverage on pensions”. More generally, the editorial staff expressed concern “for the respect of pluralism, for the independence of the title vis-à-vis any political, economic, ideological pressure” and pointed “a partisan drift” from Journal.
“Clarifying the editorial line”
These criticisms are piling up while the boss of the EchoesNicolas Barré, was brutally ousted last month and that the journalists of the Group Les Echos-Le Parisien have seen the stranglehold of the CEO of Louis Vuitton-Moët Hennessy (LVMH), Bernard Arnault, who owns these daily newspapers through his holding company, Financière Agache.
Earlier in the day, Wednesday April 12, a delegation had exchanged with the CEO of the group Les Echos-Le ParisienPierre Louette, Executive Director of the ParisianSophie Gourmelen, and the editorial director of Parisian, Nicolas Charbonneau. While management refused to remove the editorials, it granted the request to “clarify the editorial line” of the title in the medium term, according to the internal press release of the Society of Journalists of the Parisian that The world was able to consult.
Furthermore, the “door is left open” the possibility of adopting an editorial charter backed by an ethics committee, and management has proposed ” to relocate “ the workstation where the paper editions of the newspaper are designed to promote exchanges between editors, department heads and the editor-in-chief. Also questioned on suspicions of blocking an investigation, the editorial director affirmed that the subject had not been retained because it was ” far ” readers’ concerns, adding that no subject or personality was off limits.
However, the discussion was not conclusive for the delegation, which believes that “these explanations and proposals were not deemed to be reassuring. » This new vote reflects, still according to internal communication, “a firm will (…) to obtain additional guarantees to exercise their profession in complete independence”.