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LVMH chief government Bernard Arnault has confronted criticism from French media organisations — together with some he controls — over a memo to employees on the luxurious conglomerate barring contact with reporters from sure retailers.
In an open letter revealed in nationwide newspaper Le Monde on Tuesday, journalists’ unions on the media teams expressed their solidarity with the focused publications. They reminded Arnault that the “mission of the press” was to not “relay the official communication of corporations and establishments” however to tell.
“This constitutes one of many pillars of democracy,” they wrote.
The letter was signed by journalists’ unions from greater than a dozen main publications in France, together with Le Monde, Le Figaro and AFP, in addition to information broadcasters France Télévision, BFM-TV and France 24. Employees from Les Echos and Le Parisien, that are owned by LVMH, additionally signed the letter.
Arnault, whose group owns luxurious manufacturers Louis Vuitton and Dior, has had an at instances fraught relationship with the media, together with with workers at a few of his personal publications. He had an prolonged stand-off final 12 months with the employees of Les Echos after journalists alleged the billionaire had their editor-in-chief eliminated in breach of their editorial independence.
Arnault wrote the memo to senior executives throughout the €309bn market worth group in January — however its existence was reported solely earlier this month by La Lettre.
The doc instructed the managers he was issuing “an absolute ban” on talking to journalists at seven publications: La Lettre, Puck, Miss Tweed, L’Informé, Médiapart, Le Canard Enchaîné and Glitz.paris.
“I formally condemn any behaviour per sustaining relationships with unscrupulous journalists and giving them data or feedback on the lifetime of the group,” Arnault wrote. “Any breach (and it will inevitably be recognized) shall be thought of a critical infraction, with the corresponding penalties hooked up to it.”
LVMH didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Of their retort, the journalists’ teams asserted that workers have been entitled to freedom of expression and affiliation.
“The duty of loyalty to which they’re sure can not enable their employer to deprive them of their elementary rights by prohibiting them from any contact with individuals of their alternative,” they wrote.
The ban was additionally an illegal try and subvert protections for whistleblowers, they added.
The incident is the most recent of a number of clashes between house owners and employees in French journalism. The nation’s media panorama is dominated by billionaire house owners, who use these belongings to mission their standing and affect.
Journalists at La Provence, owned by delivery magnate Rodolphe Saadé, went on strike in March when their editor was suspended over a entrance web page criticising president Emmanuel Macron’s go to to Marseille to spotlight the battle in opposition to drug trafficking. The editor was reinstated after unrest unfold to La Tribune and BFM, which Saadé additionally owns.
Along with the 2 newspapers, Arnault additionally owns Radio Classique and is within the course of of shopping for superstar gossip journal Paris Match from billionaire industrialist Vincent Bolloré, who controls rightwing TV information channel CNews. Telecom billionaire Xavier Niel is Le Monde’s important shareholder.
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