“The mission of the press is not to relay the official communication of companies and institutions,” proclaimed around forty journalists’ societies on Monday to protest against the establishment of a media blacklist attributed to billionaire Bernard Arnault.
Owner of the world’s number one luxury company LVMH, Mr Arnault has issued an “absolute ban on speaking” to seven media outlets to the group’s executives, one of them, La Lettre, claimed on September 18, reproducing an email attributed to the CEO.
In addition to La Lettre, the media concerned are Glitz.paris (which belongs to the same group, Indigo Publications), Miss Tweed, L’Informé, Puck (an American site), Mediapart and Le Canard enchaîné.
Following these statements, which LVMH has not denied, around forty Journalists’ Societies (SDJ) or editorial offices expressed “their solidarity with the editorial offices of the media targeted”, in a text published online.
The signatories include the SDJ or the editorial staff of Le Monde, Libération, Le Figaro, the national editorial staff of France Télévisions, TF1, Radio France and AFP, as well as those of three media outlets concerned, L’Informé, Mediapart and Miss Tweed.
These SDJ “firmly recall that the mission of the press is not to relay the official communication of companies and institutions, but to inform, and that this constitutes one of the pillars of democracy.”
They consider such a ban “illegal in that it attempts to thwart the protective provisions for whistleblowers” within companies.
In the media, the SDJ is an association whose members are elected by their peers and whose role is to monitor issues of ethics and independence.
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