After admitting to his superiors that he had played a role in the book (written in the first person) by Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, the journalist Jean-François Achilli was fired by Radio France for “repeated breaches of ethical obligations relating to to external collaborations,” Le Monde learned on Monday April 29. The political columnist interviewed a political figure every day for this Radio-France station at the end of the afternoon, and in the evening co-presented “Les Informés”, a current affairs talk show, on the same channel.
Following the publication of the article in Le Monde on March 13 reporting the genesis of the far-right MEP’s book and revealing their collaboration, since the summer, on Jordan, the latter was suspended from the air as a precautionary measure while awaiting an interview prior to a possible disciplinary procedure, an interview which was held at the beginning of April.
Before his management, the former journalist from France Inter and BFM-TV had refuted on March 14 any conflict of interest with the president of the National Rally (RN) and only acknowledged having made “returns” and issued “opinions” on the manuscript, a Radio France executive told Le Monde. The text, of which only a large half is completed, was entitled Jordan, with the subtitle – in reference to the author’s Italian ancestry – “came from elsewhere, became from here”, recognized Mr. Bardella on France 5.
Furthermore, according to an investigation by Libération published on April 17, Mr. Achilli has been carrying out media training for several years for a communications consultancy company, Tilder, and has trained several business leaders, in particular, in the exercise of speaking, notably from SNCF and the Casino distribution group. He also created his own company, Pantanu, to invoice activities, Télérama reported on April 18. Before the management of Radio France on March 14, he explained that he was used to discussing book projects with political figures, a company executive told Le Monde.
In an email sent to employees on March 21, Franceinfo management recalled Radio France’s rules, specifying that “any external collaboration, as soon as it is considered, must be the subject of information to the hierarchy and its express and prior authorization”. Failure to comply with these rules “may constitute professional misconduct,” management warned.
Mr. Achilli’s case had been raised all the way to the National Assembly. On March 20, responding to a question from the RN deputy for Oise and former LCI journalist, Philippe Ballard, the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, recalled the “very strict” rules of Radio France. “Before any collaboration, even at the limit of any discussion, to avoid any conflict of interest, it was enough for him to inform his management to say if there was a collaboration envisaged. This was not the case, since Radio France learned about it through the press. »
