The former BFMTV journalist confessed in the investigation into foreign interference, admitting to having been paid to broadcast biased subjects. This change of heart earned him a report for “perjury”.
New rebound in the investigation into suspicions of foreign interference in the French political and media world. Rachid M’Barki, a former BFMTV journalist indicted for having broadcast biased topics on behalf of foreign actors, admitted in December to having been paid for this task, according to The Parisian. Confessions which contradicted the statements he made in March 2023 before the parliamentary commission of inquiry into foreign interference.
Friday January 19, the president of the parliamentary committee, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, announced on X his intention to report to the courts for “false testimony”.
“I happened to receive sums of money”
Rachid M’Barki presented the night news for the continuous news channel BFMTV. It is in this niche that he is suspected of having broadcast subjects oriented in favor of foreign actors, in particular Russian oligarchs, Qatar or even Western Sahara, all in exchange for remuneration. “I happened to receive sums of money,” he admitted on December 6. However, he said the opposite on March 22, 2023.
His decision to confess is motivated by the revelation of exchanges of messages with lobbyist Jean-Pierre Duthion, indicted in October in the affair. It is the latter who would have transmitted to M’Barki the subjects to be broadcast. In their discussions, remuneration was clearly mentioned.
An environmentalist MP involved?
The matter is not limited to these two men. In October, political scientist Nabil Ennasri, a specialist in Qatar, was indicted and imprisoned in the investigation linked to M’Barki. Furthermore, the name of the environmentalist deputy Hubert Julien-Laferrière also appears in the exchanges between Duthion and M’Barki. According to a message, he was paid for interventions in favor of the former Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Karim Massimov. The MP has so far been excluded from his Génération Ecologie party and removed from the environmentalist group in the Assembly.