The chain has decided. BFMTV fired its journalist Rachid M'Barki, at the end of the audit launched due to suspicions of interference, and filed a complaint against X, according to an internal email sent Thursday. The first news channel in France had opened an internal investigation in January because of these suspicions.

They concerned news items broadcast on the air, in particular relating to Russian oligarchs, Qatar and Western Sahara. "These investigations have made it possible to identify several sequences, between 2021 and 2022, which were broadcast without respecting the validation process and the editorial line. These failures are the sole responsibility of a journalist who has not respected the rules in force within the editorial staff. The management has decided to terminate his employment contract on February 21, 2023, "wrote in this email the general manager of the news channel, Marc-Olivier Fogiel.

An "isolated case" says the channel

"A complaint against X relating to the facts of which BFMTV was a victim was filed on February 22, 2023," he adds, for passive corruption and breach of trust. In response, the channel decided to "further strengthen" its editorial validation systems, says Marc-Olivier Fogiel. He stresses in his message that "this isolated case in no way reflects the exceptional and rigorous work carried out with professionalism and ethics by the 250 journalists of BFMTV to whom the management reaffirms its support and confidence".

Questioned in early February by the site Politico, which had unveiled his accusation, Rachid M'Barki, excluded from the air since January 11, had admitted to having "used information that came from informants" and which had "not necessarily followed the usual curriculum of the editorial".

Since then, an investigation by the journalists' collective Forbidden Stories, to which the investigative unit of Radio France and Le Monde contributed for the France, has revealed that this case was a small part of a vast disinformation enterprise run by an Israeli agency, which would sell its services worldwide.

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