Investigative journalist Jean-Baptiste Rivoire was sentenced Wednesday by the Courtroom of Attraction of Versailles (Yvelines) to pay 142,500 euros to his ex-employer, Canal+.
On the finish of 2021, he criticized the coverage of the group and its proprietor, Vincent Bolloréin an interview given to Reporters With out Borders (RSF), regardless of a confidentiality clause. The NGO believes that the choice of the Versailles Courtroom of Attraction “creates a harmful precedent for the train of the journalistic career”.
“By prioritizing the safety of an organization’s status over a journalist’s basic loyalty to the general public’s proper to be told, this case sends a particularly worrying sign to your complete career,” provides RSF.
In its judgment, the court docket considers that the investigative journalist spoke inside a interval “too quick to look cheap” after signing the confidentiality clause: the documentary dates from October 2021 whereas the signature dated February 2021.
“This ruling weakens press freedom”
This judgment “doesn’t draw all of the conclusions from the assault on freedom of expression induced by the clause, in reality a gag clause, which the court docket of enchantment ought to have dismissed”, believes Vincent Brengarth, who defends Jean-Baptiste Rivoire. “This judgment weakens press freedom by endorsing a really broad clause, not restricted in time and equal to a silence imposed for all times and signed in a context which is essentially unbalanced,” he provides. He specifies that his shopper plans to enchantment to the Courtroom of Cassation.
