Radio France fires comic for “serious misconduct” | EUROtoday

Published on : 06/11/2024 – 12:36

3 minutes

France Inter comic Guillaume Meurice was fired “for serious misconduct” by Radio France after repeating his controversial joke about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he introduced to AFP on Tuesday June 11.

Public radio notified him by mail of the “early termination of (his) contract for serious misconduct,” he mentioned, regardless that he had been suspended for the reason that starting of May. It’s the “end of a false suspense,” he mentioned.

“I took this decision for repeated disloyalty towards the company,” justified the president of Radio France, Sibyle Veil, in an e mail despatched to workers.

“Neither freedom of expression nor humor have ever been threatened at Radio France,” she assured, accusing Guillaume Meurice of getting “inflamed the controversy for months”.

On May 16, the comic had an interview previous to doable dismissal with human sources at Radio France. He went earlier than the disciplinary committee on May 30 earlier than the choice introduced on Tuesday.

A grievance dismissed

A determine within the present “Le grand Dimanche soir” introduced by Charline Vanhoenacker, Guillaume Meurice was faraway from the air on May 2, 4 days after having reiterated his controversial remarks about Benjamin Netanyahu, made for the primary time on the air on the finish october.

He had in contrast the Israeli Prime Minister to a “kind of Nazi but without a foreskin”, which had earned him accusations of anti-Semitism and a grievance, in the end closed with out additional motion.

These feedback additionally earned Radio France a warning from Arcom, the audiovisual regulator.

“By finally repeating his comments on the air in April, Guillaume Meurice ignored the warning he had received, the warning from Arcom and diverted the prosecutor's decision” to shut the grievance with out additional motion, argued Sibyle Veil.

See additionallyGuillaume Meurice affair: how far can we go together with humor?

“He left us no other choice than to draw the consequences of his obstinacy and his repeated disloyalty,” she judged.

In the wake of this announcement, one other comic from France Inter's “Grand Dimanche Soir”, Aymeric Lompret, introduced that he was leaving the present as an indication of assist for his colleague. “More Guillaume = more Aymeric,” he wrote on the social community X.

“First measure of the Popular Front: the reintegration of Guillaume Meurice into France Inter,” assured the rebellious deputy François Ruffin on X, in reference to the gathering deliberate by the left for the legislative elections.

The suspension of Guillaume Meurice induced a strike at France Inter on Sunday May 12.

At the tip of May, the Radio France unions and the France Inter editorial group requested their administration to resign “a decision to dismiss” the comic, believing that this is able to “create a serious precedent” for “freedom of expression” .

With AFP