“We cannot give in, even to you.” In an internal email sent this Thursday, the management of Radio France justifies its refusal to remove from the air the deputy director of Valeurs Actuelles Charles Sapin, to whom the management of France Inter has entrusted a weekly column on Sunday morning. “The number two editor of a newspaper condemned in the past for racist insults, on the public service channel, at the start of an election year: we do not minimize this symbol,” writes Vincent Meslet, editorial director of the public group, to employees. But at this stage, the trial against Charles Sapin is based on supposed intentions (...) His numerous interventions in debates as guests on our broadcasts in recent years have never posed any problems. He spent most of his career at Le Parisien, Le Figaro and Le Point, without any morally objectionable writing having been brought to our attention. And he himself distanced himself from the old ignominious covers published by Valeurs Actuelles”.
The arrival of Charles Sapin on the airwaves of the public station created a great stir within the Maison-Ronde. On August 28, two days before the first column of the journalist who intervenes within a panel of political and economic editorialists designed with a concern for pluralism, the society of journalists (SDJ) of France Inter expressed its “firm opposition” to the choice of opening the antenna to a “representative of a media condemned in particular for racist insults” and “who has continued to violently target public broadcasting”. On Wednesday, more than 400 employees of the group unanimously voted for a motion demanding the withdrawal of Charles Sapin. In the absence of a withdrawal from the editorialist, the authors of the text threatened to mandate the group's inter-union association to “submit a strike notice as soon as possible”.
“Remain an open house” in an electoral context
In his message, the group's editorial director takes care not to mention the threat of a social movement. “We know where this anger comes from. For two years, you have been working under permanent suspicion (...) You are summoned, quoted, caricatured. What you expressed yesterday is not susceptibility: it is wear and tear,” he wrote to Radio France employees. Further on, however, the manager invites them to consider “the other symbol, the one that we would send by retreating”. “That of a public service which decides who has the right to speak, and which withdraws a voice before it has even spoken, in the name of an intention attributed to it. It is no longer judging the facts. This is condemnation in advance. This symbol would do more harm to our independence than fifty Sunday columns. This is why we cannot give in, even to you.”
Vincent Meslet continues by emphasizing that public broadcasting has been the subject of numerous criticisms in recent years. “For two years, people have been asking us for heads. (...) These heads were yours. We haven't delivered any. If we deliver this because the demand comes from within, we will have nothing to oppose the next time it comes from outside. And she will come. The rule that protects Charles Sapin today is exactly the one that protected you yesterday and will protect you tomorrow. An independence that is only exercised externally is not independence: it is comfort.” The editorial director of Radio France believes that in the upcoming election period, public radio “must remain an open” and “impeccable” house. “The culture of renunciation is not ours. We will stick to our principles (...). We will not let anyone make public service a battlefield,” he concludes. It remains to be seen whether these arguments will allow management to put an end to the intense standoff that has started with the unions and the France Inter editorial staff.
