A tense exchange which cost him his place. A journalist-presenter for private radio RCI in Guadeloupe was removed from the air after a particularly tense interview with RN president Jordan Bardella. This eviction aroused strong disapproval on the left this Sunday. In the 1 p.m. news on Friday, presenter Barbara Olivier-Zandronis notably told the MEP that he was not bringing “any proposals” to the European Parliament.
The RN manager ended up asking the interviewer: “Which political party do you have your card in, Madam?” “, adding: “You have been attacking me for about nine minutes by doing the questions and answers.” Following this interview, the management of RCI radio withdrew the presentation of the 1 p.m. news to the journalist, who had been on a fixed-term contract since September.
“I consider that she did not do an interview”
“This is not the first newsroom in the world where someone is removed from the air when there is a hiccup,” explained Hervé de Haro, deputy director of RCI Guadeloupe, this Sunday. “I consider that she did not do an interview, she did a political debate. We are not an opinion radio station, and if it had been another party it would have been the same thing,” added this manager of the main radio station in the Antilles.
This sidelining provoked strong political reactions, particularly on the left. Five parliamentarians from Guadeloupe, deputies Elie Califer, Max Mathiasin, Olivier Serva and senators Victorin Lurel and Solanges Nadille, expressed their “indignation” in an open letter, believing that “the true essence of press freedom is embodied when politicians are confronted with fundamental and frank questions.”
“The confession of a nauseating drift”
On “remains silent” on this matter. “This indignation of variable geometry is the admission of a nauseating drift,” he said.
An online petition was launched to “restore Barbara Olivier-Zandronis on the air of RCI Guadeloupe”, which exceeded 1,500 signatures on Sunday. In a press release, the radio specifies that the journalist “remains an integral part of the editorial team” and says it considers “any interference in (her) business unacceptable”.