The Quebec Press Council (CPQ) blames The duty and its columnist Christian Rioux, judging that the latter demonstrated “discrimination that maintains prejudices” against young people from French suburbs with immigrant backgrounds, in one of his columns. The media court of honor, however, rejects the complainant’s complaint of “inaccurate information”.
The Chronicle French lonelinesspublished on July 14, 2023, looked back on the tense climate in France after the death of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old Franco-Algerian shot at point blank range by a police officer during a road check on June 27, 2023. This event led to several nights of riots, which required a strong mobilization of the police in order to contain the violence.
In his complaint sent to the CPQ, François Gosselin Couillard accuses Christian Rioux of discriminating against young people from the suburbs of Arab-Muslim immigration. According to him, the columnist maintains prejudices by making an “absurd amalgamation between Islamist terrorist attacks and riots”.
Here he refers to this passage: “In 2015, jihadists attacked the very symbols of French civility by assassinating simple French people seated on café terraces. The tens of thousands of vandals who set the suburbs ablaze barely two weeks ago also aimed at France’s heart by targeting the very symbols of the State and its social ideal: schools, libraries, daycares…”
After analysis, the CPQ agreed with him. “The columnist puts on an equal footing terrorists who killed 130 people and young people from the suburbs who caused material damage which has no connection with Islamist terrorism. The columnist should have refrained from using terms that can fuel prejudice by associating Arabs and Muslims with terrorists,” reads the decision made public Thursday.
Lack of caution
The complainant pointed to another passage, in which he believes this time that the columnist uses the color of people’s skin to be able to assess their legitimacy or illegitimacy. “As if all French people had not seen first-hand that these riots were, essentially, the work of populations from immigrant backgrounds, regardless of whether they were from the first, second or third generation,” wrote Christian Rioux.
“Mr. Rioux arbitrarily excludes rioters who do not have the right complexion for French nationality,” insists François Gosselin Couillard.
By a majority — five out of six — the CPQ came to the conclusion that “the columnist failed in his duty of prudence by not avoiding prejudice.” “By using the expression “de visu”, the columnist attributes the origin of the riots to a defined group of suburban residents: those from visible minorities with immigrant backgrounds. Furthermore, in this sentence he separates the “French” from “populations of immigrant origin” […] as if people with an immigrant background, even third generation, were not real French. »
In the two examples cited, the CPQ does not go as far as the complainant, who saw in the words used a call to hatred and contempt which “encourages people to be afraid of Arab people”.
Accurate information
The third complaint, relating to the presence of “inexact information”, was also rejected by the CPQ. The complainant considered that it was false to say “that working-class neighborhoods were flooded with generous state subsidies”, arguing “that the French state invested in the suburbs does not mean that this money met the needs in quantity sufficient”. However, Mr. Rioux only recalls that “billions” have been invested in the suburbs, without passing judgment on the interest or the result of this investment, argues the media court of honor. “Although the complainant disagrees with the columnist’s opinion, the passage targeted by the complaint does not contain inaccurate information. »
“We take note of this decision and we will analyze it internally with a view to continuously improving our journalistic practices,” commented the editor-in-chief of the DutyMarie-Andrée Chouinard.
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