The management of TF1 has “obviously missed something” about Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, emblematic figure of the channel, now indicted for rape. This is what Robert Namias, the former news director of TF1, admitted this Thursday, November 7, before the commission of inquiry into sexual violence in the cinema and audiovisual sector, reports the AFP. “The context was not the same“, he explained in reference to previous eras, “but despite everything, we missed something“Under oath, the ex-leader assured that he would never have imagined”for a moment that there could be such crimes committed at TF1“.
“I was never informed of anything”
For Robert Namias, these accusations opened “a huge injury“. Some victims claim that the management of TF1 would have protected PPDA, a key figure on the air for more than two decades. MP Estelle Youssouffa, from the Liot group and former journalist at LCI, a channel belonging to the same group, stressed that “the harassment (on the part of PPDA) was perfectly known“. A comment which implies that the behavior of the face of the channel was public knowledge within the company, but was never sanctioned.
These statements come as revelations broke out from November 2021, after a book then a complaint from the author Florence Porcel, who accuses PPDA of having raped her twice. Accusations that led toindictment of the former presenter in December 2023 for one of the alleged rapes. Numerous testimonies from former colleagues then surfaced, accusing the former star presenter of TF1 television news of rape and harassment.
READ ALSO: PPDA affair: “We knew nothing”, insists Robert Namias, former head of TF1 news
In total, more than 40 women have filed complaints against the journalist, now 77 years old, for alleged rape and sexual assault, which he continues to deny. Robert Namias clarified that the accusations against PPDA would concern “70-80” women, although the majority of these testimonies do not come from direct collaborators of TF1, and the incidents reported often took place outside the channel. “I was never informed of anything“, he said. And to continue: “If we had any conviction, he should have left the company immediately.”
However, a first complaint for rape was filed in 2005, and the offices of TF1 were searched. A search which led to a police visit to the office of Patrick Poivre d'Arvor at TF1. Questioned on this subject, Robert Namias declared that he had not had any “no knowledge“. This complaint, revealed by “Le Monde” last October, was filed by Caroline Merlet, aged 29 at the time, after her appearance on the set of the television news. The investigation was quickly closed, and PPDA was then questioned by the Hauts-de-Seine judicial police, according to AFP.
Regarding reports of harassment, the manager claimed not to have received any from his teams. Nevertheless, he recognized that “in the 80s and 90s or even 2000s, we did not have at all the same approach to these questions of sexual harassment“.
