The French news channel BFMTV fired a journalist after an audit into suspicions of outside interference in his work, and filed a complaint against X, according to an internal email sent on Thursday February 23.
The channel had opened an internal investigation in January and dismissed the journalist concerned, Rachid M’Barki, from the air. The suspicions concerned briefs relating in particular to the Russian oligarchs, Qatar or Western Sahara, broadcast on the antenna during the night editions that it presented.
According to an investigation by the collective of journalists Forbidden Stories, to which the investigation unit of Radio France and the daily Le Monde contributed for France, this affair is a small part of a vast disinformation enterprise piloted by an Israeli pharmacy, which would sell its services worldwide. This company is made up of former members of the Israeli security services, according to the revelations of the collective, broadcast by thirty international media.
Asked at the beginning of February by the Politico site, which had revealed its implicated, Rachid M’Barki, suspended since January 11, had admitted to having “ used information that (him) came from informants » and who had « not necessarily followed the usual course of writing “. “ They were all real and verified. (…) 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 “, he continued.
Internal audit has made it possible to identify several sequences, between 2021 and 2022, which were broadcast without respecting the “process” validation and editorial line “, Wrote in an internal email the general manager of BFMTV, Marc-Olivier Fogiel. ” These shortcomings are the sole responsibility of a journalist who has not respected the rules in force within the editorial staff. Management has decided to terminate his employment contract on February 21, 2023 “, he underlined. ” A complaint against X relating to the facts of which BFMTV was the victim was filed on February 22, 2023 added Marc-Olivier Fogiel. It concerns acts of passive corruption and breach of trust.
►Also read: A ghost Israeli company would have influenced dozens of elections around the world
In response to this case, the channel decided to “ further strengthen “its editorial validation devices,” said the general manager of BFMTV. He points out in his message that “ this isolated case in no way reflects the exceptional and rigorous work carried out with professionalism and ethics by the 250 journalists of BFMTV “.
(With AFP)