“We have decided to keep Jean-François Achilli off the air as a precautionary measure, while we clarify the situation. » The boss of Franceinfo Jean-Philippe Baille informed the station’s editorial staff, early Thursday afternoon in an internal email, that their colleague Jean-François Achilli will not co-present, with Bérengère Bonte , from the next show “The Informed” (8 p.m. – 9 p.m.).
This decision follows the revelation, by The world, Wednesday March 13, of the journalist’s participation in the work planned by the signatory Jordan Bardella. In the evening, immediately after the publication of the article, his colleagues called upon Jean-François Achilli to ask him what he had meant when he had argued “his personal professional life” to justify his role with the president of the National Rally.
“He replied to them that he had refused to co-write the book, and that his discussions with Jordan Bardella were part of the contacts he made with politicians of all sides in the exercise of his profession”reports one of his colleagues.
Banish any suspicion of conflict of interest
It is on the basis of this explanation that the journalist presented himself before Jean-Philippe Baille, also director of information at Radio France, and Philippe Rey, editorial director of Franceinfo, Thursday morning. If Jean-François Achilli has “helped” to Jordan Bardella, “this would be a serious conflict of interest”Franceinfo’s Society of Journalists (SDJ) was immediately alarmed in a press release, also wishing to be received by Mr. Baille.
At Radio France, the attention paid to external contributions has been accumulating since the spring of 2023, when the station was shaken by the revelation of “households” (these paid external contributions to which journalists sometimes lend themselves). Four people were laid off, and a fifth dismissed (she has since contacted the industrial tribunal). In the process, one of the first acts of Jean-Philippe Baille when he assumed the position of director of information at Radio France in the fall, was to reaffirm the ethical principles of the house in order to “restore confidence to the French in their information”.
Each employee, he then recalled, had to have any external collaboration validated by their management (a platform was launched in June, initially for local radio stations), in order to banish any suspicion of conflict. ‘interests. Failure to comply with this procedure is likely to constitute “a professional misconduct could give rise to a disciplinary sanction”, the management had indicated. Since then, another journalist has also been dismissed, despite the voluntary nature of the external collaboration he had provided.
