War is declared. Three days after the suspension of Guillaume Meurice by Radio France, Charline Vanhoenacker took her side by making her show The Great Sunday evening a tribute to the comedian, in the name of freedom of expression. During the show, one of the comedians, Djamil le Shlag, decided to slam the door live, in support of Guillaume Meurice.
“Personally, I don’t see what’s shocking about comparing Netanyahu to a kind of Nazi without a foreskin. This sentence is not offensive and I know what I’m talking about, I myself don’t have a foreskin,” Djamil le Shlag first launched into general hilarity. Before saying that he no longer felt free on the air. “Who do you think you’re scaring with your threats of layoff? Personally, I am an Arab in France, I have always been threatened with being fired. […] I drew conclusions by retiring from public service after the show, it was my last column. […] In this station, I no longer feel in my safe space”.
This was one of the many bravados of this show during which the usual place in Guillaume Meurice’s studio was symbolically left empty. He “has no right to be with us this evening, Inter sent him to boarding school to get him back on the right path”, quipped Charline Vanhoenacker at the start of her show. Guillaume Meurice was suspended Thursday pending a possible sanction which could go as far as dismissal for having reiterated his controversial comments about Benjamin Netanyahu, made at the end of October, comparing the Israeli leader to a “kind of a Nazi but without a foreskin”. A criminal complaint was filed against him following these comments, accusing him of anti-Semitism, but it was dismissed.
“As the far right has decided to silence us this evening, we are not going to give them this pleasure”
“Some of you are wondering why we are not on strike. We are specialists in strikes, we have done them all for ten years and we know the rules: five days’ notice to Radio France. You wouldn’t want us to become outlaws as well?», also said Charline Vanhoenecker. “As the far right has decided to silence us this evening, we are not going to give them this pleasure”, continued the host, reserving several barbs for the public group. “By spending more time in HR and the PJ (judicial police) than writing jokes, we will end up proving people right who say that public money is poorly spent.she said. “When it comes to freedom of expression, even if we have to go onto the field on one leg and blindfolded, we are going to play it this match”she promised. “Solidarity still exists, and it’s the best defense.”
Also in the name of this solidarity, another comedian from the troupe, Aymeric Lompret, broadcast excerpts from Guillaume Meurice’s humorous sidewalk microphone during a column, thus circumventing the sanction. “We have the sounds of Guillaume’s report. […] We decided, and I validated because I have the authority – you saw it -, to entrust these sounds to Aymeric so that he can make a bit of investigative comedy out of them.justified Charline Vanhoenacker.
Summoned on May 16, Guillaume Meurice received the support of the editorial staff of France Inter and left-wing leaders, after this dismissal which aroused the concern of many personalities regarding the respect of freedom of expression and caricature by public service. Guillaume Meurice had already received a warning in November from the management of Radio France, which he contested before the industrial tribunal.
