Journalists at France’s leading Sunday newspaper announced on Tuesday that they would end one of the longest media strikes in recent French history, but they predicted that dozens could resign to protest the appointment of an editor with the most -right track record as the new editor in chief.
The staff of Le Journal du Dimanche, known for its interviews with government leaders and mainly centrist policy analysis, said it decided to call off the 40-day walkout after it became clear what would soon become the paper’s new owner, the French billionaire Vincent Bolloré, will not revoke the appointment. Staff members said they had no choice but to work with the new management or quit their jobs.
The new editor, Geoffroy Lejeune, who previously headed a far-right French magazine that was fined for publishing racist insults, is set to take up his new post on Tuesday. Word of his appointment to The JDD, as the paper is known, sparked a firestorm in French media and political circles, sparking concerns that a major mainstream news outlet could become a right-wing platform. Before the riots, about 100 journalists worked at the Paris paper.
“Today, Geoffroy Lejeune is in office. He will walk into an empty newsroom,” the JDD journalists’ union said in a statement. “Dozens of journalists refuse to cooperate with him and leave The JDD.”
The paper has been off newsstands for six weeks — only the second time in its 75-year history that it has gone out of print — since reporters walked out in mid-June after Mr. Lejeune before taking over from Mr. Bolloré. This summer, Mr. Bolloré is set to acquire a majority stake in the Lagardère Group, a conglomerate that owns The JDD and Paris Match magazine.
In a statement, the Lagardère Group said the weekly print editions will resume publication in mid-August.
The journalists’ union said Mr. Lejeune’s espousal of a right-leaning editorial line, including anti-immigrant language and support for the far-right writer and presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, shows of values that “contradicted the values of JDD. ” Mr. Lejeune, 34, has not made any public statement other than a brief message on Twitter saying he was honored to take the lead. The right-leaning magazine Valeurs Actuelles fired him last year amid a dispute with the owner over editorial direction.
The drama at The JDD has revived long-standing concerns about press freedom in a country where more than four-fifths of privately owned newspapers and TV and radio stations are owned by French or foreign nationals billionaire or financier.
After many protests by JDD journalists and a letter of support signed by hundreds of academics, economists, cultural figures and left-wing politicians, Parliament is considering a proposal that would allow newspaper journalists to receive government subsidies, such as The JDD, to have a say in choosing the editor in chief. President Emmanuel Macron also announced a series of public hearings in September on how to strengthen press freedom.
JDD’s direct owner, the Lagardère conglomerate, which essentially reports to Mr. Bolloré, said it alone had the right to install a new editor.
The episode drew new attention to Mr. Bolloré, a politically connected industrialist often described as France’s Rupert Murdoch. He comes from traditional Catholic circles in Brittany and continues to build a conservative media empire, anchoring a Fox News-style network, CNews. Several mainstream news outlets he bought have been turned into right-leaning platforms, with longtime journalists fired and replaced with new editorial lines that analysts say align with Mr. Bolloré’s political beliefs.
The journalists’ union said most of the JDD staff were likely to leave. Some, he said, are forming an association to push for changes in France’s legislative framework governing the press, “to ensure the freedom of editorial staff and the protection of journalists in the exercise of their profession.”
“Today we have lost a battle, but our fight is not over,” the union added in its statement. “At the end of this historic strike, we draw this conclusion: Faced with the power of shareholders, journalists can only rely on the law.”
