“TV5 Monde has ended its collaboration with Françoise Joly (…) due to strategic differences,” according to a press release from the channel’s general management, based in Paris.
Asked by AFP, the management of TV5 Monde did not comment.
Journalist Françoise Joly joined the public international channel in 2017 as editor-in-chief and presenter, before becoming news director in July 2019. Her dismissal comes after several months of crisis within the channel.
At the end of May, its CEO Yves Bigot announced that he would not be reappointed and that he would resign on June 30, five months before the end of his mandate.
The French ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs had launched a few days earlier an unprecedented call for applications for his position, which closed on June 9.
The current secretary general of the public group France Télévisions, Christophe Tardieu, will take over as interim secretary from July 1, pending the appointment of his successor.
In the meantime, the Society of Journalists (SDJ) of TV5 Monde, which reformed in March after a five-year absence, deplored “the sad spectacle offered” according to it by the channel “in recent months”, in reaction in particular to the dismissal procedure targeting Françoise Joly.
In November, the editorial staff was shaken by a statement from management distancing itself from journalist Mohamed Kaci after a tense interview with an Israeli spokesperson.
Included in the 2025-2028 strategic plan, the possible entry of seven African countries (Benin, Gabon, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo-Brazzaville) into the channel’s capital also raises internal concerns regarding freedom of the press, according to several media outlets.
On June 6, the SDJ and the CEO of TV5 Monde signed a charter on editorial independence and editorial ethics, “an essential prerequisite for any discussion on the entry of new countries into the channel’s Board of Directors,” according to the SDJ.
The capital of TV5 Monde is shared between public audiovisual companies in France (including France Télévisions), Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Quebec and Monaco.
