LCI Journalists Warned After Controversial Veil Remarks Spark Outrage

LCI journalists must now control the airtime by avoiding controversial subjects. This is what the Directorate has decided. Indeed, in an internal memo dated Wednesday, October 16, Valérie Nataf, Director of LCI, warned journalists against "slip-ups", reports Le nouvel observateur.

Even if he does not openly mention it, the Director’s memo is implicitly referring to the sequences recently broadcast, which fueled the controversy around the veil, a sensitive and very present issue in the French political and media news for a few weeks now.

It was first Eric Zemmour who, in a "particularly violent" speech, delivered on the occasion of the Convention of the Right, broadcast live by LCI on September 28, had sparked controversy by attacking Islam and Muslims.

On October 14, Yves Thréard, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Le Figaro, who was a guest on the "Grand Soir" show for a debate on the veil, violently attacked Islam: "I hate the Muslim religion, I have the right to say it", without being challenged by the journalist Julien Arnaud, the debate moderator.

The latest to have outraged thousands of Internet users is Olivier Galzi, host of the "9 heures Galzi" show. During a debate on the ban on the veil and its political nature, the journalist compared the veil to an SS uniform, after recalling statements by President Emmanuel Macron.

In his internal memo, the Editor-in-Chief of the channel put the journalists in front of their responsibilities, stating that they should "not tolerate, nor leave unchallenged, any remarks or attitudes that would be assimilated to a "slip-up".