Questioned this Tuesday, May 7 in the National Assembly, the Minister of Culture estimated that “Radio France could not not react” after the comedian reiterated his controversial comments about Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Radio France had no other choice.” The Minister of Culture Rachida Dati was questioned this Tuesday, May 7 during questions to the government by LFI deputy David Guiraud on the situation of Guillaume Meurice, recently suspended by Radio France after having reiterated controversial remarks about the Israeli Prime Minister.
“In our country, a repeat offender convicted of provoking racial hatred can roam the TV sets but a comedian who makes a joke approved by the court is dismissed from our public service,” said the deputy from La France insoumise.
“You are right to ask this question, it can raise questions about freedom of expression,” the government member first replied, “the subject of humor in the media should be discussed with moderation but without any caricature. “
Comments from last October and repeated in April
Rachida Dati, however, called for avoiding “confusion between a court decision which closed a complaint and an Arcom decision”. A decision to which “Radio France could not fail to react”, according to the minister.
Return to October 29, 2023. Comedian Guillaume Meurice, who appears every Sunday on the show Le Grand Soir on France Inter, holds a sketch a few days before Halloween in which he suggests, “to do”, a costume at the effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “a sort of Nazi but without a foreskin”.
This outing, which earned the comedian a warning from Radio France, was also the subject of a warning addressed to France Inter by Arcom. According to the audiovisual media regulator, this sequence, which occurred in a context marked by the resurgence of acts of an anti-Semitic nature, “undermined the proper exercise by Radio France of its missions and the relationship of trust that it has must communicate with all of its listeners.
The complaint filed against the comedian dismissed
The case also took a legal turn with a complaint filed by the European Jewish Organization against Guillaume Meurice for provoking anti-Semitic violence and hatred and public insult of an anti-Semitic nature. A complaint finally closed without further action by the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office last April.
On April 28, during a new broadcast of Le Grand Soir, Guillaume Meurice declared in his column that “there are things that we can say, for example ‘if I say that Netanyahu is a kind of Nazi but without a foreskin ‘It’s good the prosecutor said ‘it’s good’, he said it this week. You can make mugs, t-shirts, it’s my first joke authorized by French law.
A new outing which earned him a suspension from two broadcasts by France Inter and a summons “to a prior interview with a view to a possible disciplinary sanction which could go as far as the early termination of a fixed-term contract for serious misconduct”. A sanction which motivated the Radio France unions to call for a strike next Sunday.
“Guillaume Meurice redid his column identically”
Rachida Dati nevertheless explained from the Palais-Bourbon that the classification by the courts of the complaint filed against Guillaume Meurice “is not in contradiction with the Arcom decision because it does not enforce the Penal Code but the list of charges imposed on Radio France”.
“In October 2023, Arcom had warned (…) despite this, Guillaume Meurice redid his column identically and therefore again required either a report – therefore a referral to Arcom – or even a sanction from Arcom”, continued the Minister of Culture, judging that “Radio France had no other choice but to summon” the comedian.
Rachida Dati at the same time assured that she was “deeply attached, for several reasons” to freedom of the press, and affirmed to be “uncompromising on freedom of expression, even when this freedom of expression can sometimes harm her honor.”
Hugues Garnier Journalist BFMTV
