The editorial staff of France Inter denounced on Friday the “unacceptable summons” of Guillaume Meurice with a view to possible dismissal, seeing it as a “very worrying sign for freedom of expression”, the day after the suspension of the comedian by Radio France.
“We demand that Guillaume Meurice remain on the air, without delay,” declared the France Inter journalists’ (SDJ) and producers’ (SDPI) companies in a press release.
Thursday, the columnist of the show “Le grand Dimanche soir”, presented by Charline Vanhoenacker, was suspended, four days after having reiterated on the air his controversial remarks made at the end of October about the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
“There are things we can say. For example, if I say: +Netanyahu is a kind of Nazi but without a foreskin+, that’s good. The prosecutor said: +It’s fine+,” said the comedian on Sunday, in reference to the recent dismissal of a complaint against him accusing him of anti-Semitism for similar remarks.
Summoned to an interview, the date of which remains unknown, he risks a “possible disciplinary sanction which could go as far as the early termination of (his) fixed-term contract for serious misconduct”, recall the SDJ and SDPI of France Inter, who “see in this decision a very worrying sign for freedom of expression, a value that Radio France defends.”
“This unacceptable summons seems to be the symptom of a broader editorial shift,” they deplore.
They thus claim to have learned that the program “La terre au Carrée” was going to stop “to make way for a science and ecology program + more narrative + still presented by Mathieu Vidard but without Camille Crosnier” and evoke a “drastic cut » of the budget for “Big Sunday evening”.
Questioned by AFP on these elements, France Inter explained that “in agreement with Mathieu Vidard, there will be an editorial evolution of his program at the start of the school year but it will keep its fundamentals, the environment and science”.
Camille Crosnier will remain at the helm of “P’tits Bateaux”, now broadcast seven days a week, and she is “in discussions on other projects” within the schedule.
As for “Grand Dimanche Soir”, France Inter “wants the show to continue next year but we must develop it from an editorial point of view so that it covers our costs, while keeping the entire team and by remaining in public,” explained the radio station.
“Today, sequences are extremely expensive to produce. Work is underway with the producer, Charline Vanhoenacker, to find the best formula,” we learned from the same Source.
