Rachid M’Barki, the BFMTV journalist, was suspended from the channel after broadcasting disinformation content. Did he do it knowingly or was he trapped in a large-scale operation revealed by a consortium of journalists?
His face has been absent from the BFMTV antenna since January. Rachid M’Barki, long-time journalist for the news channel and presenter of the Journal de la nuit, was suspended in mid-January by the channel’s management after the broadcast of biased and partisan content on his show. If the contours of this affair were still vague, this Wednesday, February 15, the consortium of journalists Forbidden Stories – which counts The world And French Radio among member media – lifts the lid on the disinformation campaign that has infiltrated the first streaming news channel. A large-scale operation that seems linked to a most discreet Israeli company and nicknamed Team Jorge, after its main leader. Non-existent in the eyes of the law, the company is said to be involved in numerous disinformation operations around the world.
Suspicions of interference were the gateway to this affair which is shaking BFMTV. Journalists, members of the Forbidden Stories consortium, would have warned Marc-Olivier Fogiel, boss of the news channel, of the presence of biased content on his antenna, referring to certain briefs broadcast during Rachid M’Barki’s newspaper. But was the man aware of what was going on behind him?
What is accused of Rachid M’Barki?
Suspended since January 11, BFMTV journalist Rachid M’Barki is the subject of an internal investigation. The reason ? The presenter has, on several occasions, broadcast brief and biased images on the antenna. These subjects were provided “turnkey on behalf of foreign clients” and sent for distribution against remuneration according to the consortium of journalists. The sequences referred to in the Rachid M’Barki affair relate to Morocco and the decried claim of Western Sahara, to the Russian oligarchs deprived of a yacht in Monaco or even in Qatar and Cameroon. Countries and individuals who could have used the services of Team Jorge.
Near Politicothe man admitted to having “used information that [lui] came from informants” and who “did not necessarily follow the usual editorial course”. the hierarchy and the approval of the chief editor, Rachid M’Barki “managed to request (some) images at the last minute […] once the editor-in-chief was taken on another installment and had validated his entire newspaper”, according to the explanations of Marc-Olivier Fogiel, guest on France Inter Wednesday, February 15.
Were BFMTV and Rachid M’Barki aware of the disinformation campaign?
The management of the information channel is clearing itself in this affair. “There is no doubt that BFM is a victim in this story, when one of ours bypasses the hierarchical chain, that poses a problem”, launched the boss of the media who believes that there “is no would have no internal complicity”. And to Hervé Beroud, deputy general manager of Altice media, to bid with Politico “We cannot tolerate any suspicion about the work of our entire editorial staff and our 300 journalists”.
For his part, Rachid M’Barki admits having broadcast the images voluntarily without the approval of the management but denies being part of the disinformation operation. The journalist, although having agreed to broadcast briefs on request, claims to have verified the reliability of the sources. According to him, the information “was all real and verified, I do my job. […] I’m not ruling anything out, maybe I got tricked, I didn’t feel like I was or I was part of some operation of whatever or else I wouldn’t have done it .” In view of the revelations about the disinformation campaign, the presenter conceded a “journalistic error of judgment” in front of his management. For its part, the news channel regretted an “editorial free will […] problematic enough to [lancer] an internal audit”.
Who provided the biased information to Rachid M’Barki?
It was to “do a favor for a friend” that Rachid M’Barki disseminated information under the nose and beard of the management of BFMTV. The journalist did not hesitate to give the identity of this relative: Jean-Pierre Duthion. Known in the media world, the man lived in Syria between 2007 and 2014 and served as a fixer for reporters. Today, Jean-Pierre Duthion presents himself as a “lobbyist” and assumes being at the origin of the sending of the disputed information on BFMTV, a mission entrusted by a sponsor of whom he says he knows nothing but who could well be Team George. “I receive assignments without knowing the end customer. It’s very compartmentalized. I don’t ask myself questions. I do what I’m told to do. The less I know, the better off I am”, a- he told reporters at French Radio.
Rachid M’Barki would not be the only one to have been approached by Jean-Pierre Duthion. Another journalist from BFMTV informed the consortium that from 2020, and again in 2023 after the suspension of the flagship presenter, the lobbyist contacted him specifying that he was “assigned to pay journalists to pass on information”. Something that Jean-Pierre Duthion denies: “I have never and will never pay a journalist. No evidence, no element allows us to affirm the contrary.” Would Rachid M’Barki have been paid in return for the contested broadcasts? The journalist did not comment on this point.