The Rennes Court of Appeal considers that the description of “Guadeloupean pen-puncher” used against the journalist was “in a satirical manner” and “within the limits of freedom of expression”.
The leader of a far-right group, the publication director of the news website Breizh-info and one of his colleagues were acquitted on appeal on Wednesday for defamation and racist insult against a journalist from West France.
In June 2021, Jean-Eudes Gannat, leader of the far-right group L’Alvarium based in Angers, now dissolved, was interviewed on the far-right website Breizh-info. He criticized the coverage by West France of the activities of his group and specifically cites a journalist of Guadeloupean origin from the daily newspaper, then stationed in Angers.
“No doubt he dreams of being Sartre, who “took his pen for a sword”; except that by dint of crudely relaying the propaganda of the extreme left, our Guadeloupean penman is throwing spears at his own camp; no one is fooled (…)”we can read in this interview still available on the Internet.
“Satirical mode and polemical context”
For these remarks, the Rennes criminal court sentenced the three men in the first instance to a fine of 2,500 euros each for defamation and public insult based on the origin or race of the journalist and one euro for West FranceOn appeal, the three men were acquitted.
In its ruling, which AFP was able to consult on Thursday, the Rennes Court of Appeal considers that if the terms “Guadeloupean penman” are “undeniably pejorative and mocking”they must nevertheless “be placed in a context of recurring and public ideological opposition between the person targeted (…) and the author of the remarks”. Words spoken “in a satirical manner, in a polemical context”, and which did not exceed “the permissible limits of freedom of expression”it is added.
“I am between disappointment and anger”journalist Josué Jean-Bart responded to AFP, indicating that he would appeal to the Court of Cassation. “It is certain that Jean-Bart cannot accept reading that the expressions used are simply mockery or irony and not insults.”commented the lawyer of Ouest-France, Me Jérôme Stéphan. The far-right site Breizh-info welcomed on Thursday“a victory for freedom of expression”.
