Astonishment. This is the first word that comes to the mouth of Emmanuel Khérad, historic presenter – nineteen seasons – of The French-speaking bookstore (France Inter, Saturday at 2 p.m. and Première, Saturday at 12 p.m.), when we call him to talk to him about the announced end of his show. A misunderstanding that he shared on Instagram and on Facebook, following the information disclosed this weekend by the newspaper Le Monde. “I was at a book festival in the south of France, to sign my work (Look at the worldEd. Stock, Editor’s note), and a lot of listeners came up to me to ask me if it was my decision. I obviously told them it was against my wishes”, explains the journalist. “Now, we reserve the right to launch any procedure to defend myself since, indeed, I am awaiting a registered letter concerning this sudden judgment. But here we are in astonishment. We are devastated, stunned, because it is unexpected.”
All the authors present at the Hyères book fair were also incomprehensible. “We don’t understand why. I expect clear explanations and not only “we stop The French-speaking bookstore because we want change”. We understand the choice of management even less since it impacts three other channels, Belgian, Swiss and Canadian.”
The French-speaking bookstore, whose production costs are divided into four (between the four public French-speaking media), is not a program with a crazy budget. “My salary is not high, there are no budget problems or overruns. The trips we make are most often linked to partnerships… I have always paid close attention to the budget because it is public money”underlines the journalist again.
“France does not dominate the French language”
Emmanuel Khérad will continue, he says, to do everything to highlight the French-speaking world. “I fought for almost nineteen years, we created a whole network around the French-speaking world, to defend authors. Belgians in particular, but also French, Canadians, who had no place, no visibility.” A profitable fight since The French-speaking bookstore works well and is positioned far ahead of all its competitors. “We have always had very good relations with RTBF – I would like to emphasize this – which has always been committed to this program. We must not give up and we will see in the coming weeks or days how all this will come to fruition.”
If he cannot react for the moment because he does not have all the information in hand, Emmanuel Khérad says he is in any case very touched by the deluge of messages of support posted by many personalities. “It’s as unexpected as what’s happening to us here, to lose this emblematic show which is very important for the world of culture and literature.”
