Sébastien Thoen at the “Grand Journal” in 2014 – SYSPEO / SIPA
This is called a chain reaction. About twenty people working in the sports department of Canal + have been pushed out since the dismissal in November of the comedian Sébastien Thoen, AFP learned on Monday from union sources, confirming information from the Les Jours site.
Dismissals, negotiated departures, freelancers not recalled … In total, according to the online media, 25 people have left or will leave the encrypted channel, of their own accord or not. Contacted by AFP, the management of Canal + declined to comment.
This wave of departures testifies to the tense climate in the sports service since the Sébastien Thoen affair. This columnist was fired in the fall of 2020 for a parodying skit Time for the pros, a program from CNews, the info channel of Canal +, a subsidiary of the Vivendi group controlled by billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
A supportive text interpreted as a lack of loyalty
Some 150 employees at the time signed a text in support of the comedian, including 48 anonymously, a gesture interpreted as a lack of loyalty by management. Three freelance signatories were dismissed in mid-February, two months after star commentator Stéphane Guy, fired for paying tribute to Sébastien Thoen on the air.
150 people signed up to defend freedom of speech and tone.
Many others in the Canal + group, as we know, are in agreement with these principles. In our opinion, this is what should be remembered.
Do not create a divide where there is none. pic.twitter.com/BvvjHu1PJk
– SDJ Canal + (@CanalSdj) December 4, 2020
The additional departures recorded by Les Jours include five journalists. The latter were threatened with dismissal in April, whether in connection with their signing of the petition, or with the leaks concerning the Canal + documentary. I’m not a bitch, I’m a journalist, which incriminated the columnist house Pierre Ménès, according to the union + Libres (majority at Canal +).
Among them are Guillaume Priou, co-director of the documentary, and Solange Tricaud, member of the Society of Journalists (SDJ) and elected staff (+ Libres), whose dismissal is suspended by the agreement of the labor inspectorate.
Ongoing investigations
Departures include two other signatories, presenters Marie Portolano, recruited by M6 this winter, and Laurie Delhostal. And those, recently announced, of Laurent Jaoui and Agathe Roussel, members of the hierarchy of the service and not signatories.
During an extraordinary CSE Thursday, management announced “a new organization at the end of June to compensate” for these departures, and the acquisition of new TV rights next season, a union source told AFP.
The management also specified that the internal investigation launched following revelations on acts which could be qualified as sexual assault of Pierre Ménès would be completed at the end of June, according to another source. The star columnist has been absent from the air since the end of March.
The labor inspectorate, for its part, is carrying out an investigation, after elected officials have triggered a double right of alert for “violation of individual liberty” (with reference to the consequences of the petition) and “serious and imminent danger” (on the deterioration of working conditions).