The position is a copy of the one that was already dedicated to “gender issues”. The journalist who will occupy it will have to “watch out for possible racist bias” in Médiapart’s content.
The newspaper Médiapart, a digital news daily known for its investigations and its very left-wing editorial line, announced on September 26 the appointment of a “editorial manager for racial issues”. It was the Médiapart journalist appointed to this position, Sabrina Kassa, who made the announcement herself by publishing a post on the Médiapart blog, explaining what her missions will be and in what state of mind she intends to work. . Her “objective”she writes, will be “monitor possible racist bias in our content and journalistic practices and develop our coverage on these subjects”.
Sabrina Kassa joined Médiapart in 2015, as co-head of “Médiapart Club”a free opinion space open to Médiapart subscribers and in which personalities outside the editorial staff can offer columns or blog posts. She had previously collaborated on various titles in the French and international press, mainly on subjects linked to immigration, relations between the countries of the North and the South, and discrimination.
Also read“From Rokhaya Diallo to Mediapart, when the left starts counting ethnic groups”
“Racism is unleashed and spreads in all spheres of society and politics”writes the journalist in the preamble, indicating that her position is modeled on a position of manager dedicated to gender issues, created within the Médiapart editorial staff in 2020. Deploring that the word «race» is taboo, and that it has even disappeared from the Constitution, the journalist continues: she intends “number” et “measure the lived experiences of those who suffer racial oppression linked to being perceived and treated as ‘Arab’, ‘Black’, ‘Asian’”.
Measuring the ethnic diversity of Médiapart’s contacts
Sabrina Kassa says she is inspired by “what exists at the AFP editorial staff and also at the New York Times”and evokes “a road map” comprising “several construction sites”. The first of these consists of paying attention to the choice of words in “speaking more frankly about race (racialization, racialization…), whiteness, privileges”and to “develop a glossary and a guide to good practices”.
The journalist also intends to measure the ethnic diversity of the people to whom Médiapart gives a voice by carrying out “regular monitoring of our production to try to have an overall vision of what we can read on Mediapart, in order to set concrete objectives to improve our editorial coverage”. In other words, ensuring that people labeled as belonging to each «race» have fair representation in the content of the newspaper.
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