A “deep unease” reigns within the editorial staff of Paris Match. In question : the indictment of the figure of the people press “Mimi” Marchand, in connection with an interview with the businessman Ziad Takkiedine published in the newspaper, according to a letter addressed to his management.
Revealed by journalists from Days, the text is signed by the society of journalists (SDJ) of the weekly and the unions SNME-CFDT, CGT, SNJ and FO. It was approved by 76 journalists among 83 voters and sent on June 18, said a journalist from Paris Match who wished to remain anonymous.
“Witness bribery”
The signatories express “their deep discomfort” since the custody at the beginning of June of their colleague, the journalist François de Labarre, and the indictment of Michèle Marchand (known as “Mimi” Marchand), the boss of the agency BestImage, for “witness tampering” and “criminal association with a view to committing an organized gang scam”, in a part of the investigation into suspicions of Libyan financing of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign.
Justice is interested in the organization in Lebanon of an interview published in November 2020 in which Ziad Takieddine returned to his accusations concerning the money that Nicolas Sarkozy would have received from the Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi.
Blaming the management for not having “explained” to “the entire editorial staff”, its signatories fear for the “credibility” of their title.
“Mimi” Marchand indicted
They also regret that the custody of their colleague was the subject of an editorial in June, devoid of “contextualization” and which “ignores” the indictment of Mimi Marchand.
The latter was placed in pre-trial detention on Friday for having violated its judicial control, which provided for a ban on contact with several people, including Nicolas Sarkozy, the latter’s lawyer, Thierry Herzog, and the editorial director of the JDD and of Paris Match, Hervé Gattegno.