Journalist Faces Online Backlash After Criticizing French Football Federation’s Dress Code

The journalist of Moroccan origin has been receiving hate messages on social media since she reacted to an RMC Sport article about the French Football Federation’s ban on wearing helmets and tights, in the name of secularism. "Country of degenerate racists. There are no other words. Shame," Nassira El Moaddem wrote on X.

These remarks sparked the anger of some French Internet users on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and even on certain television channels, reports Le Monde. Invited on the show of Jean-Marc Morandini on CNews broadcast on May 1, the RN deputy Julien Odoul declared: "If she is not happy, she can leave," before asking for the suspension of the journalist by Radio France. The BFM-TV journalists also consider these remarks "excessive or inappropriate."

"Arrêt sur images" denounced the "hundreds of racist insults and death threats" that its journalist is receiving. "For more than forty-eight hours, Nassira El Moaddem [...] has been the victim of an extremely violent racist harassment campaign from the far right," the news site said in a statement, accusing the media CNews, the JDD and C8 of having "launched the machine" and "fueled the hatred."

For her part, Nassira El Moaddem says she "does not regret at all" her remarks and that "what happened completely proves me right." The Franco-Moroccan has received the support of Radio France journalists who denounce "a racist and particularly violent cyber-harassment," as well as the editorial offices of Le Monde, Nouvel Obs, Libération, Mediapart or Le Canard enchaîné.