The strike of the journalists from Journal du Dimanche – one of the most significant French weekly newspapers – lasted 40 days, from June 22nd to August 1st. The editorial staff carried out a “historical” strike, as described by several analysts. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), it is the longest strike in France’s media since 1975.

The strike began when the weekly’s journalists learned from an article in Le Monde that Geoffroy Lejeune would be their new editor-in-chief. Lejeune was just being fired from his previous job as Valeurs Actuelles’ editor-in-chief, a far-right magazine.

The Journal du Dimanche newsroom immediately expressed its refusal to be led by Lejeune, and the journalists demanded guarantees of editorial and legal independence so that they could continue to do their work in the best possible way. The difficulty in obtaining guarantees led to the strike.

In the end, the strike ended without obtaining guarantees and with most of the newsroom planning to leave the organisation. “By the end of October around 90% of the editorial staff will have left Le Journal du Dimanche”, Radio France notes, which amounts to more than 90 people.

Six-week strike

Also known as the JDD, Le Journal du Dimanche, whose name translates into English as ‘Sunday’s newspaper’, is the last Sunday newspaper in France. The JDD is known for its interviews with government leaders, and had in the past adopted centrist or close to Macron’s government positions.

Upon learning of Lejeune’s appointment, almost all the newsroom decided to go on strike. The newspaper was absent from newsstands for six weeks, a decision made by a clear majority. (Before the strike, the newspaper was selling about 140,000 copies per issue).

“We weren’t expecting that”, says a JDD journalist who will be leaving the JDD in September and who asked to remain anonymous to protect her identity, fearing possible retaliation. “We knew what was happening through Le Monde [which published an article revealing that Geoffrey Lejeune would be the new editor-in-chief of the JDD – ed.] and we immediately decided to initiate a strike”, she tells The Fix Media. The JDD journalist adds: “I didn’t plan to depart from the newspaper this soon”. However the arrival of Geoffroy Lejeune was a “red line” that she was not willing to cross. Therefore, when it became clear that he would be joining the editorial direction nonetheless, she decided to leave the journal.

Finally, on August 1, Geoffroy Lejeune took over as editor despite the protests.

Geoffroy Lejeune – and Vincent Bolloré’s influence

Geoffroy Lejeune’s appointment as the editorial leader of JDD has caused so much outcry because of his connection with far right political forces. In June he was ousted from Valeurs Actuelles (VA). In fact, the new owner of VA, Franco-Lebanese entrepreneur Iskandar Safa, considered him too aligned with the ideology of Éric Zemmour, a French far-right politician and TV host whom Lejeune supported during his presidential campaign last year. Lejeune had edited the outlet since 2016; under his leadership the magazine was fined for publishing a racist insult in 2021.

The motives and procedures for Lejeune’s appointment as editor of the JDD are controversial and opaque. Officially, Lejeune was appointed editor by the newspaper’s publisher, the Lagardère Group. But billionaire Vincent Bolloré is likely to secure a majority stake in the Lagardère Group this summer and may have somehow influenced Lejeune’s hiring.

Vincent Bollorè is the majority shareholder of the multinational Vivendi, and, as Liz Alderman described him in the New York Times, he has also been called “France’s Rupert Murdoch.” This is a Catholic-born entrepreneur who has built a 24-hour news network, CNews, which, as Jon Allsop writes in CJR, has a style that recalls Fox News. It is possible, then, that Le Journal du Dimanche is part of a strategy to further expand the media available to Bolloré to influence and spread political views close to the far right.

For the French professor Alexis Lévrier, specialised in history of journalism: “The ‘Bolloré model’ has consequences on media pluralism.” Moreover, in his opinion, “the readers will not like the new format”. “It’s not possible to change the history and identity of a newspaper so quickly”, he tells The Fix Media.

In the new editions of the Sunday newspaper, “all of the journalists have changed”. “This is such a significant change in the history of the journal, and it can work just in an ideological, not economical way because the traditional readers are not following the new editorial line of the JDD”, he says. According to Professor Lévrier, “Vincent Bolloré has decided to take hold of a brand like JDD, which was in a difficult economic condition but still held significant prestige, to lead his cultural and ideological battle against immigration and Islam”.

Solidarity and resignation

The protests of the Journal du Dimanche journalists were covered by several French newspapers; the strike also attracted attention outside the world of journalism. A letter of support signed by 400 people, including academics, economists, associations, cultural figures, and politicians, was published in Le Monde. The letter states, “We cannot accept [the idea of] this pioneering Sunday newspaper express[ing] views contrary to the republican values it has embodied for 75 years. Whether you like it or not, whether you read it or not, the JDD, with all its merits and faults, has always been committed to the diversity of opinions. It cannot become a newspaper that ‘serves’ extreme right-wing ideas”.

In the end, the strike ended without obtaining guarantees, but not without consequences for the life of the weekly. The printed edition of the Journal du Dimanche returned to the newsstands on August 6, but the content and the journalists had completely changed. In fact, 60 people, including staff and freelance journalists, left the paper with the appointment of Geoffroy Lejeune. The newsroom had announced that the new editor would not find the situation unchanged since the beginning of the strike; “he will enter an empty newsroom”.

The two presidents of the Societé des Journalistes du JDD recently announced on France Inter radio that: “By the end of October, around 90% of the editorial staff will have left Le Journal du Dimanche”. These resignations have made the publication of the first August issue so difficult that, as France24 reports, the first issue published under Lejeune: “was produced mainly by freelance journalists and ‘volunteers’.”

European investigations

In all these weeks, Lejeune had never made any statements or announcements; he did so for the first time on August 1st, writing on Twitter (aka X) that he wanted to thank “the many messages of support” that had helped him “face the new challenges” that awaited him at JDD.

But his appointment as editor has not only been the focus of attention in French journalism; in fact, as mentioned, it is possible that Bolloré may have somehow influenced his hiring, even though he had not yet completed the acquisition of the Lagardère group. This may have given Bolloré an illicit advantage, and European Union regulators are investigating and may impose a fine.

Reacting to the strike of JDD journalists, deputies from eight French political groups have presented a bill about media independence. Another text has been submitted to the Senate by senator David Assouline from the Socialist Party, while his colleague Nathalie Goulet is advocating for legal recognition of editorial teams. Additionally, the government has officially announced the launch of the “Etats généraux de l’information” in September to discuss the state of the right to information in France.

French professor Alexis Lévrier sees this as “the only positive note”. In fact, the “heroic battle of JDD journalists” could finally lead to a change in the French law to protect the editorial staff and grant them a veto right in the selection of the new editor-in-chief.

In the final statement released by the JDD newsroom announcing the end of the strike, the journalists wrote that the action and attention may not end there: “Today we have lost a battle but our fight is not over”. Moreover, the journalist Juliette Demey, co-president of the Société Des Journalistes du JDD, claimed that together they will continue the fight “in a different way, and it’s a fight that will have an impact far beyond Le Journal du Dimanche”. For now they formed an association to “guarantee the independence of editorial teams and the protection of journalists” and they could participate in the discussion about the new bill on media independence during the public discussion that’s due to start this fall.

Source of the cover photo: https://www.pexels.com

French journalism

Latest in French journalism

Greening the media sphere – insights from French newsrooms

The Journal du Dimanche strike and the influence of the far right in French journalism