Six unions (CGT, CFDT, FO, SNJ, SUD, Unsa) filed strike notice on Monday evening for Sunday from 00:00 to midnight. This is the day on which Charline Vanhoenacker’s weekly show is broadcast, in which Guillaume Meurice usually participates.
The comedian was suspended on May 2 pending a possible sanction which could go as far as dismissal, four days after having reiterated his controversial comments about Benjamin Netanyahu made at the end of October.
He compared the Israeli Prime Minister to a “kind of Nazi but without foreskin“, which earned him accusations of anti-Semitism and a complaint, recently dismissed.
In their strike notice, the unions ask the management of the public group “the end of the repression of insolence and humor” And “the unlimited reaffirmation of freedom of expression” on its antennae.
Guillaume Meurice, or the story of the guy who made a joke and ended up at the PJ
Asked about the Meurice case in the National Assembly on Tuesday, the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati judged that “Radio France could not not react“.
“In October 2023, Arcom (the audiovisual regulator, editor’s note) warned in a very well-argued manner (…) France Inter following Guillaume Meurice’s column“, recalled Ms. Dati.
“Despite this (…), Guillaume Meurice redid his column identically“, which potentially exposed Radio France”to a sanction from Arcom“, she continued.
Even if Radio France had not “no other choice“than to summon the comedian, this affair”can question freedom of expression“, however, conceded the minister.
More broadly than just the Meurice case, the Radio France unions are concerned in their strike notice of “threat“which weigh, according to them,”on popular and unique shows“, in particular on France Inter.
On May 3, in the wake of the Meurice affair, the societies of journalists (SDJ) and producers (SDPI) of France Inter denounced “an editorial shift” from France’s leading radio station. They claimed in particular to have learned of the upcoming replacement of the environmental program “La terre au carré”.
The unions accuse the management of Radio France of carrying out “a policy of social destruction on the air“, while a “public broadcasting reform project will soon be discussed in the National Assembly“.
Ms. Dati’s project, the establishment of a single governance for public broadcasting (including France Télévisions and Radio France) will be examined on May 23 and 24 in the hemicycle.
The unions are finally castigating “a campaign of denigration and slander orchestrated by political parties, organizations or personalities frankly hostile to the public service of radio“. The latter is frequently accused by right-wing figures of leaning clearly to the left.
